Part IX – September 1969 – Papers - Solid State Diffusional Transformations in the Near-Equiatomic Ni-Ti Alloys

THIS is the second in a trilogy of investigations carried out in order to understand the solid state transformations and their accompanying effects on the deformation behavior of near-equiatomic Ni-Ti alloys. The first stage of this effort has dealt with the strictly martensitic structures obtainable in these alloys, i.e., those in which diffusion processes were not involved.1,2 These martensites could be produced either by rapid quenching or by plastic deformation of the originally B2 type phase. The present investigation, on the other hand, will deal with those transformations in Ni-Ti which do involve diffusion. A majority of investigators3-10 have shown that the B2 modification of TiNi, which is stable at elevated temperatures, decomposes into one or both of the intermetallic compounds NiTi2 and Ni3Ti below about 650°C. On the other hand, this has been disputed by several Workers was undertaken in order to resolve this discrepancy, as well as to shed more light on the nonmar-tensitic decomposition of B2 NiTi. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE Sample preparation, fabrication, and examination were the same as those described previously in Ref. 2. In addition to the 50 at. pct Ni (55.06 wt pct) hypoeu-tectoid alloy used previously, a second hypereutectoid alloy containing 54.4 at. pct Ni (60 wt pct) was also prepared for this study. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The equilibrium diagram for the Ni-Ti alloy system in the vicinity of Ni-Ti is shown in Fig. 1. The solid lines have been established by the work of Poole and ~ume-Ftothery4 whereas the dotted lines are based on findings obtained in the present investigation as described below. Structure and Morphology. Fig. 2(a) shows a bright field transmission electron micrograph of a two-phase structure obtained in a polycrystalline Ni-Ti alloy that was furnace cooled (approx 200°C per hr) from 1050' to about 300°C. Large plate-shaped precipitates can be observed in a matrix which was found by electron diffraction to possess the high temperature B2 structure. A selected area diffraction pattern of the region covered by Fig. 2(a) is shown in Fig. 2(b), while Fig. 2(c) is a detailed schematic interpretation of Fig. 2(b). The B2 matrix reflections are illustrated by squares while those of the precipitate are shown as circles. The d values associated with the precipitate reflections could be determined quite accurately since the reflections from the B2 matrix, for which the lattice constant is known precisely, were simultaneously present in the diffraction patterns. All of the reflections