The effects of crystallographic orientation, temperature and heat treatment on superelastic response of Ni45Mn36.5Co5In13.5 single crystals were investigated. Superelastic experiments with and without various magnetic field were conducted under compression on a custom built magneto-thermo-mechanical test setup. Magnetostress, which is the difference in critical stress levels for the martensitic transformation with and without magnetic field, was determined as a function of crystallographic orientation, heat treatment and temperature parameters. Magnetostress of [111] crystals was observed to be much higher than that of [001] crystals with same heat treatment. Water quenched samples have the highest magnetostress among other samples with the same orientation that were oil quenched and furnace cooled. Crystal structure and atomic ordering of the samples were examined using Synchrotron High-Energy X-Ray Diffraction to rationalize observed differences. Magnetostress levels were also traced at various temperatures. A Quantum Design superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) was utilized to examine the magnetic properties of the material. The difference in saturation magnetization at various temperatures was analyzed to explain the temperature effect on magnetostress. Calculations based on the energy conversion from available magnetic energy to mechanical work output were used to predict the magnetic field dependence of magnetostress, which provides a guideline in material selection for the reversible magnetic field induced martensitic phase transformation. Isothermal superelastic response and load-biased shape memory response of Co48Ni33Al29 single crystals were determined as a function of temperature and stress, respectively. The aim of the work is to provide a new direction to understand the anomaly of transformation strain and hysteresis for ferromagnetic shape memory alloys. Thermo-mechanical behavior of Co48Ni33Al29 single crystal was determined by a custom built thermo-mechanical compression setup based on an electromechanical test frame made by MTS. Transformation strain was observed to decrease with increasing applied stress in isothermal tests or increasing temperature in superelastic experiments. The variation in the lattice constant in martensite and austenite was verified to account for such a trend. It was also discovered that both thermal and stress hysteresis decreased with increasing applied stress and temperature, respectively. Multiple factors may be responsible for the phenomenon, including the increase of dislocation, the compatibility between martensite and austenite phase.

The development of active 'smart materials', which are materials that can change their physical properties when subject to an external stimulus such as a thermal, mechanical or magnetic energy, are expected to significantly enhance technology developments in future years. These new materials can be integrated into existing technologies to increase efficiency, performance, durability and size reduction.

Magnetic Shape Memory Alloys (MSMAs) combine shape-change/deformationrecovery abilities of heat driven conventional shape memory alloys (SMA) and magnetic field driven magnetostrictives through martensitic transformation. They are promising for actuator applications, and can be employed as sensors/power-harvesters due to their capability to convert mechanical stimuli into magnetic response or vice versa. The purpose of the present work was to investigate magneto-thermo-mechanical (MTM) response of various MSMAs, under simultaneously applied magnetic field, heat and stress. To accomplish this, two novel testing systems which allowed absolute control on magnetic field and stress/strain in a wide and stable range of temperature were designed and manufactured. MTM characterization of MSMAs enabled us to determine the effects of main parameters on reversible magnetic field-induced phase transformation (FIPT), such as magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy, Zeeman energy, stress hysteresis, thermal hysteresis, critical stress to start stress induced phase transformation and crystal orientation. Conventional SMA characteristics of single crystalline Ni2MnGa and NiMnCoIn and polycrystalline NiMnCoAl and NiMnCoSn MSMAs were investigated using the macroscopic MTM testing system to reveal how these conventional properties were linked to magnetic-field-induced actuation. An actuation stress of 5 MPa and a work output of 157 kJm?3 were obtained by the field-induced martensite variant reorientation (VR) in NiMnGa alloys. FIPT was investigated both in Ni2MnGa MSMA and in NiMnCoIn metamagnetic SMA. It proved as an alternative governing mechanism of field-induced shape change to VR in Ni2MnGa single crystals: one-way and reversible (0.5% cyclic magnetic field induced strain (MFIS) under 22 MPa) stress-assisted FIPTs were realized under low field magnitudes (< 0.7 Tesla) resulting in at least an order of magnitude higher actuation stress levels than those in shape memory alloys literature. The possibility of harvesting waste mechanical work as electrical power by means of VR in NiMnGa MSMAs was explored: without enhanced pickup coil parameters or optimized power conditioning circuitry, 280 mV was harvested at 10 Hz frequency within a strain range of 4.9%. For the first time in magnetic shape memory alloys literature, a fully recoverable MFIS of 3% under 125 MPa was attained on single crystalline metamagnetic SMA NiMnCoIn by means of our microscopic MTM testing system to understand the evolution of FIPT under simultaneously applied magnetic field and stress. Conventional SMA characteristics of polycrystalline bulk NiMnCoAl and sintered compacted-powder NiMnCoSn metamagnetic SMAs were also investigated, with and without applied field.

Ni-Mn-Ga is a ferromagnetic shape memory alloy that can be used for future sensors and actuators. It has been shown that magnetic field can induce phase transformation and consequently large strain in stoichiometric Ni2MnGa. Since then considerable progress has been made in understanding the underlying science of shape memory and ferromagnetic shape memory in bulk materials. Ni-Mn-Ga thin films, however is a relatively under explored area. Ferromagnetic shape memory alloy thin films are conceived as the future MEMS sensor and actuator materials. With a 9.5 percent strain rate reported from magnetic reorientation, Ni-Mn-Ga thin films hold great promise as actuator materials. Thin films come with a number of advantages and challenges as compared to their bulk counterparts. While properties like mechanical strength, uniformity are much better in thin film form, high stress and constraint from the substrate pose a significant challenge for reorientation and shape memory behavior. In either case, it is very important to understand their behavior and examine their properties. This thesis is an effort to contribute to the literature of Ni-Mn-Ga thin films as ferromagnetic shape memory alloys. The focus of this project is to develop a recipe for fabricating NiMnGa thin films with desired composition and microstructure and hence unique properties for future MEMS actuator materials and characterize their properties to aid better understanding of their behavior. In this project NiMnGa thin films have been fabricated using magnetron sputtering on a variety of substrates. Magnetron sputtering technique allows us to tailor the composition of films which is crucial for controlling the phase transformation properties of NiMnGa films. The composition is tailored by varying several deposition parameters. Microstructure of the films has been investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques. Mechanical properties of as-deposited films have been probed using nano-indentation technique. The chemistry of sputtered films is determined quantitatively by wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDS). Phase transformation is studied by using a combination of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), in-situ heating in TEM and in-situ XRD instruments. Magnetic properties of films are examined using superconducting quantum interface device (SQUID).

Ni-Co-Mn-In system is a new type of magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) where the first order structural and magnetic phase transitions overlap. These materials can generate large reversible shape changes due to magnetic-field-induced martensitic transformation, and exhibit magneto-caloric effect and magnetoresistance. Ni-Co-Mn-Sn alloys are inexpensive alternatives of the Ni-Co-Mn-In alloys. In both materials, austenite has higher magnetization levels than martensite. Fe-Mn-Ga is another MSMA system, however, whose magnetization trend is opposite to those of the Ni-Co-Mn-X (In-Sn) systems upon phase transformation. The MSMAs have attracted great interest in recent years, and their magnetic and thermo-mechanical properties need to be further investigated. In the present study, the effects of indium concentration, cooling, and annealing on martensitic transformation and magnetic response of single crystalline Ni-Co-Mn-In alloys were investigated. Increasing indium content reduced the martensitic transformation start (Ms) temperature, while increasing temperature hysteresis and saturation magnetization. Increasing annealing temperature led to an increase in the Ms temperature whereas annealing at 400 degrees C and 500 degrees C led to the kinetic arrest of austenite. Cooling after solution heat treatment also notably affected the transformation temperatures and magnetization response. While the transformation temperatures increased in the oil quenched samples compared to those in the water quenched samples, these temperatures decreased in furnace cooled samples due to the kinetic arrest. The possible reasons for the kinetic arrest are: atomic order changes, or precipitate formation. Shape memory and superelastic response, and magnetic field-induced shape recovery behavior of sintered Ni43Co7Mn39Sn11 polycrystalline alloys were also examined. The microstructural analysis showed the existence of small pores, which seem to increase the damage tolerance of the sintered polycrystalline samples. The recoverable transformation strain, irrecoverable strain and transformation temperature hysteresis increased with stress upon cooling under stress. Moreover, magnetic-field-induced strain due to the field-induced phase transformation was confirmed to be 0.6% at 319K. Almost perfect superelastic response was obtained at 343K. A magnetic entropy change of 22 J kg-1 K-1 were determined at 219K from magneto-caloric effect measurements which were conducted on annealed Ni43Co7Mn39Sn11 ribbons. Magnetic characteristics and martensitic transformation behavior of polycrystalline Fe-Mn-Ga alloys were also examined. Cast alloys at various compositions were undergone homogenization heat treatments. It was verified by magnetization measurements that the alloys heat treated at 1050 degrees C shows martensitic transformation. The heat treatment time was determined to be 1 day or 1 week depending on the compositions.

Magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs) are a class of active materials that de- form under magnetic and mechanical loading conditions. This work is concerned with the modeling of MSMAs constitutive responses. The hysteretic magneto-mechanical responses of such materials are governed by two major mechanisms which are variant reorientation and field induced phase transformation (FIPT). The most widely used material for variant reorientation is Ni2 MnGa which can produce up to 6% magnetic field induced strain (MFIS) under 5 MPa actuation stress. The major drawback of this material is a low blocking stress, which is overcome in the NiMnCoIn material system through FIPT. This magnetic alloy can exhibit 5% MFIS under 125 MPa actuation stress. The focus of this work is to capture the key magneto-thermo-mechanical responses of such mechanisms through phenomenological modeling. In this work a detailed thermodynamic framework for the electromagnetic interaction within a continuum solid is presented. A Gibbs free energy function is postulated after identifying the external and internal state variables. Material symmetry restrictions are imposed on the Gibbs free energy and on the evolution equations of the internal state variables. Discrete symmetry is considered for single crystals whereas continuous symmetry is considered for polycrystalline materials. The constitutive equations are derived in a thermodynamically consistent way. A specific form of Gibbs free energy for FIPT is proposed and the explicit form of the constitutive equations is derived from the generalized formulation. The model is calibrated from experimental data and different predictions of magneto-thermo-mechanical loading conditions are presented. The generalized constitutive equations are then reduced to capture variant reorientation. A coupled magneto-mechanical boundary value problem (BVP) is solved that accounts for variant reorientation to investigate the influence of the demagnetization effect on the magnetic field and the effect of Maxwell stress on the Cauchy stress. The BVP, which mimics a real experiment, provides a methodology to correlate the difference between the externally measured magnetic data and internal magnetic field of the specimen due to the demagnetization effect. The numerical results show that localization zones appear inside the material between a certain ranges of applied magnetic field. Stability analysis is performed for variant reorientation to analyze these numerical observations. Detailed numerical and analytical analysis is presented to investigate these localization zones. Magnetostatic stability analysis reveals that the MSMA material system becomes unstable when localizations appear due to non-linear magnetization response. Coupled magneto-mechanical stability analysis shows that magnetically induced localization creates stress-localizations in the unstable zones. A parametric study is performed to show the constraints on material parameters for stable and unstable material responses.

Magnetic shape memory (MSM) materials are a new class of smart materials which exhibit shape deformation under the influence of an external magnetic field. They are interesting for various types of applications, including actuators, displacement/force sensors, and motion dampers. Due to the huge strain and the magnetic field-driven nature, MSM materials show definite advantages over other smart materials, e.g. conventional thermal shape memory materials, in terms of displacement and speed. The principle behind the magnetic field induced strain (MFIS) is the strong coupling between magnetization and lattice structure. The investigation of both static and dynamic magnetic domain structures in MSM materials is a key step in optimizing the properties for future possible devices. In this work, optical polarization microscopy is applied to investigate the twin boundary and magnetic domain wall motion in bulk NiMnGa single crystals. Surface magnetic domain patterns on adjacent sides of bulk crystals are revealed for the first time providing comprehensive information about the domain arrangement inside the bulk and at the twin boundary. The tilting of the easy axis with respect to the sample surface determines the preferable domain size and leads to spike domain formation on the surface. Out-of-plane surface domains extend into the bulk within a single variant, while a twin boundary mirrors the domain pattern from adjacent variants. Furthermore, magnetic domain evolution during twin boundary motion is observed. The partial absence of domain wall motion throughout the process contradicts currently proposed models. The magnetic state alternates along a moving twin boundary. With the abrupt nucleation of the second variant this leads to the formation of sections of magnetically highly charged head-on domain structures at the twin boundaries. On the other hand, a dynamic actuation experimental setup, which is capable to provide high magnetic fields in a wide range of frequency, was developed in the course of this study. The observation of reversible twin boundary motion up to 600 Hz exhibits the dependence of strain, hysteresis, and twin boundary velocity on the actuation speed. MFIS increases with frequency, while the onset field is similar in all observed cases. Twin boundary mobility enhancement by fast twin boundary motion is proposed to explain the increase in MFIS. The twin boundary velocity is shown to be inversely proportional to the twin boundary density. No limit of twin boundary velocity is observed in the investigated frequency range.

Im Legierungssytem Ni-Mn-Ga tritt bei Zusammensetzungen nahe der stöchiometrischen Zusammensetzung Ni2MnGa der magnetische Formgedächtniseffekt auf. Darunter versteht man die Dehnung durch Bewegung von Zwillingsgrenzen im Magnetfeld. Einkristalle aus Ni-Mn-Ga mit einer tetragonalen 5M-Martensitstruktur zeigen magnetisch erzeugbare Dehnungen von bis zu 6 %. Diese großen Dehnungen verbunden mit der schnellen Schaltfrequenz von Magnetfeldern machen den Effekt interessant für technische Anwendungen z. B. als Aktoren. Derartige Einkristalle sind schwierig und teuer herzustellen, weshalb für technische Anwendung Polykristalle von Interesse sind. Diese lassen sich im Allgemeinen leichter und preiswerter herstellen. Um den magnetischen Formgedächtniseffekt in Polykristalle einzustellen, werden grobkörnige, texturierte Proben mittels des Verfahrens der gerichteten Erstarrung hergestellt. Die Gefügeuntersuchungen erfolgen mit metallographischen Schliffen und die Kornorientierungen werden mit der EBSD-Technik bestimmt. Um das Gefüge zu vergröbern, werden Glühungen nach einer aufgebrachten Warmverformung untersucht. Zur Verringerung der für die Bewegung der Zwillingsgrenzen notwendigen Spannung (Zwillingsspannung) werden die Proben im Druckversuch mechanisch trainiert. Dabei kann die Zwillingsspannung teilweise unter die magnetisch erzeugbare Spannung auf die Zwillingsgrenzen (Magnetospannung) abgesenkt werden. Eine weitere Absenkung der Zwillingsspannung wird durch eine plattenförmige Probengeometrie mit Dicken im Bereich der Korndurchmesser erreicht. An derartigen Proben wird magnetisch rückstellbare freie Dehnung durch Zwillingsgrenzenbewegung erzielt.

Magnetic shape memory alloys are active materials which deform under the application of a magnetic field or an external stress. Due to their internal friction, recognizable from the strain-stress hysteresis, this new material technology allows the design of multistable actuators. This paper describes and characterizes an innovative airflow control valve whose aperture is proportional to the deformation of the active material and thus controllable by the input voltage. The multistability of the material is partially exploited within an airflow control loop to reduce the energy losses of the valve when a specific airflow value must be hold.

The purpose of this work is to reveal the governing mechanisms responsible for the magnetic field-induced i) martensite reorientation in Ni2MnGa single crystals, ii) stress-assisted phase transformation in Ni2MnGa single crystals and iii) phase transformation in NiMnCoIn alloys. The ultimate goal of utilizing these mechanisms is to increase the actuation stress levels in magnetic shape memory alloys (MSMAs). Extensive experimental work on magneto-thermo-mechanical (MTM) characterization of these materials enabled us to i) better understand the ways to increase the actuation stress and strain and decrease the required magnetic field for actuation in MSMAs, ii) determine the effects of main MTM parameters on reversible magnetic field induced phase transformation, such as magnetocrystalline anisotropy energy (MAE), Zeeman energy (ZE), stress hysteresis, thermal hysteresis, critical stress for the stress induced phase transformation and crystal orientation, iii) find out the feasibility of employing polycrystal MSMAs, and iv) formulate a thermodynamical framework to capture the energetics of magnetic field-induced phase transformations in MSMAs. Magnetic shape memory properties of Ni2MnGa single crystals were characterized by monitoring magnetic field-induced strain (MFIS) as a function of compressive stress and stress-induced strain as a function of magnetic field. It is revealed that the selection of the operating temperature with respect to martensite start and Curie temperatures is critical in optimizing actuator performance. The actuation stress of 5 MPa and work output of 157 kJm−3 are obtained by the field-induced variant reorientation in NiMnGa alloys. Reversible and one-way stress-assisted field-induced phase transformations are observed in Ni2MnGa single crystals under low field magnitudes (<0.7T) and resulted in at least an order of magnitude higher actuation stress levels. It is very promising to provide higher work output levels and operating temperatures than variant reorientation mechanisms in NiMnGa alloys. Reversible field-induced phase transformation and shape memory characteristics of NiMnCoIn single crystals are also studied. Reversible field-induced phase transformation is observed only under high magnetic fields (>4T). Necessary magnetic and mechanical conditions, and materials design and selection guidelines are proposed to search for field-induced phase transformation in other ferromagnetic materials that undergo thermoelastic martensitic phase transformation.