Thermal Fatigue Degradation Behavior of Ni-Ti Shape Memory Alloy

Ti-Ni 형상기억합금의 열피로열화 거동

In SMA(shape memory alloy), the degradation by fatigue is one of the most important problems to be overcome, when SMA is used for robot-actuator material. The actuator is operated repeatitively for long time and its repeating operation develops the fatigue degradation of SMA. The fatigue degradation changes the transformation temperature and deformation behavior and results in inaccurate operation control of robot. Accordingly, the changing behavior of transformation temperature and deformation which results from repeating operation is to be investigated in advance and the scheme to resolve those problems have to be made for the design of actuator. In this study, the fatigue tests were carried out on SMA specimens prepared to have different condition of aging time and pre-strain with the direct-current heating-cooling method, which was a general method of operation in robot actuators. The behavior of transformation temperature and deformation were examined and analyzed in each specimen and the study was performed to establish the optimistic manufacturing condition of SMA against the fatigue degradation.