On the Effect of Latent Heat on the Fracture Toughness of Pseudoelastic Shape Memory Alloys

A finite element analysis of steady-state crack growth in pseudoelastic shape memory alloys under the assumption of adiabatic conditions is carried out for plane strain, mode I loading. The crack is assumed to propagate at a critical level of the crack-tip energy release rate and the fracture toughness is obtained as the ratio of the far-field applied energy release rate to the crack-tip critical value. Results related to the influence of latent heat on the near-tip stress field and fracture toughness are presented for a range of parameters related to thermomechanical coupling. The levels of fracture toughness enhancement, associated with the energy dissipated by the transformed material in the wake of the growing crack, are found to be lower under adiabatic conditions than under isothermal conditions [Baxevanis et al., 2014, J. Appl. Mech., 81, 041005]. Given that in real applications of shape memory alloy (SMA) components the processes are usually not adiabatic, which is the case with the lowest energy dissipation during a cyclic loading–unloading process (hysteresis), it is expected that the actual level of transformation toughening would be higher than the one corresponding to the adiabatic case.