Improvement in the superelasticity of Ti–19Zr–11Nb–4Ta shape memory alloy caused by aging treatments

The superelasticity behaviors of Ti–19Zr–11Nb–4Ta shape memory alloy subjected to aging treatments were investigated in this study. As the aging temperature increased, the precipitation of isothermal ω phase was found to suppress the formations of stress-induced αʺ-martensite. The superelastic recovery of the sample first increased and then deteriorated with the increasing of aging temperature from 423 K to 523 K. A maximum superelastic recovery strain of 3.9% was obtained for Ti–19Zr–11Nb–4Ta alloy aged at 473 K.