Dynamic Recovery and Superelasticity of Columnar-Grained Cu–Al–Mn Shape Memory Alloy

The columnar-grained Cu71.5Al17.5Mn11 shape memory alloy was treated by single-pass hot rolling at 900 °C with a thickness reduction of 67.3% followed by immediate water quenching. Dynamic recovery other than discontinuous dynamic recrystallization occurred during the treatment process, bringing about retained columnar grains with textures, as well as dislocations introduced into the parent matrix. As a result, a large maximum recoverable strain of more than 11% was maintained due to the retained beneficial grain characteristics. The critical stress for inducing martensitic transformation and stress hysteresis were enhanced mainly due to the existence of dislocations.