Wear in superelastic shape memory alloys: A thermomechanical analysis

Abstract Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) have shown superior mechanical properties including improved wear resistance compared to their conventional counterparts of the same surface hardness. Available wear models cannot estimate a wear coefficient for SMAs, since they do not consider the effects of phase transformation and the related phenomena. This study presents a methodology considering thermomechanical behavior of shape memory alloys in sliding wear. Wear analysis is carried out for a superelastic SMA under different loads and temperatures, and the results are validated by experimental findings. The proposed approach introduces a constant wear coefficient at different loads and temperatures supporting its reliability for quantitative description of wear in an SMA.