Finally, what explanatory power does our model have for shape memory alloys? One of the most important unexplained features of the shape--memory alloys is the two--way shape memory effect. If one trains the sample a few times, deforming it into a particular configuration as it cools through the transition, eventually it will deform by itself. How does the system remember its low--temperature configuration, in the undeformed high--temperature phase where there are no twin boundaries to hold the information? One thing glassy systems are good for is history dependence! Our models definitely can be trained: heating from deformed martensite into tweed and cooling preferentially returns into the original deformation. A tangible prediction results from this picture: the two--way shape memory effect will disappear if one heats past the tweed regime.
Two cycles under external stress, from
strained tweed to
strained martensite and back;
two cycles without external stress from
trained tweed to
trained martensite and back.
Notice the strain is remembered after the stress is removed!
Entertaining Science done at
LASSP.
James P. Sethna, sethna@lassp.cornell.edu
Statistical Mechanics: Entropy, Order Parameters, and Complexity,
now available at
Oxford University Press
(USA,
Europe).