Conditioning treatments of Cu-Al-Be shape memory alloys for dampers

The mechanical hysteresis and the large recoverable deformation that shape memory alloys have in the pseudoelastic regime make them attractive for damping devices, The diffusion effects on the transformation temperatures in Cu-Al-Be are presented and evaluated near room temperature. The thermomechanical and aging treatments to optimize the mechanical properties of Cu-Al-Be wires for dampers through controlled grain growth are studied. In particular, the conditions to ensure the appropriate behavior without accumulative deformation against the cycle number, and in the coexistence zones, are analyzed. The pseudoelastic window of properly conditioned wires allows the use as dampers in civil engineering. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.