This research concerns the combined experimental, analytical and
computational study of superelasticity in metal alloys, especially NiTi and
CuZnAl. The experimental portion of this work is done in collaboration with
Professor R.O. Ritchie.
Current specific interests include: multiaxial testing of thin-walled
tubes of NiTi under isothermal conditions; investigation of the significance
of texture in the mechanical response of superelastic alloys; development of
robust algorithms for the simulation of multi-variant martensitic-austenitic
transformations.
The following image shows the experimental setup for bi-axial (tension-torsion) loading of thin NiTi tubes under displacement control, slow loading rates and essentially isothermal conditions: