THERMAL ARREST MEMORY EFFECT

The course of the martensitic transformation is affected by strain fie lds in the untransformed parent phase. One of the consequences of this in Ni-Ti shape memory alloys is the ''Thermal Arrest Memory Effect'' (TAME), where the martensite to parent phase transformation ''remember s'' the temperature of arrest in the previous thermal cycle. From the results of the calorimetric investigations in this study, it is deduce d that the TAME is the result of locked-in transformation strain energ y in the self-accommodating martensitic microstructure. Thus it is fou nd that on account of the large difference in the degree of self-accom modation achieved in the martensitic microstructures, TAME is observed to be significant in Ni-Ti and not in Cu-Zn-Al shape memory alloys.