CHARACTERIZATION OF THE MICROSTRUCTURAL STATE OF A CUZNAL INDUSTRIAL SHAPE MEMORY ALLOY

The thermomecanical treatments used for the industrial production have a great effect on the transformation temperatures of the CuZnAl shape memory elements. We characterize the microstructural state of samples submitted to several kinds of thermomecanical treatments. We used the transmission electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. A particular effort was made on the observation of the alloy long range order state. The observations show different default structures and different long range ordered domain sizes according to the kind of treatment. The order state is characterized by a size and a number of long range ordered domains B2 and L21, but it seems to be necessary to estimate the short range order degree.