ABSTRACT
Acknowledgments ........................................................................................................................ 180
Abbreviations and Basic Definitions............................................................................................ 180
References .................................................................................................................................... 181
Shape-memory alloys are an extraordinary group of materials that have been attracting much
attention in recent years because of their unique properties. Due to a reversible martensitic transfor-
mation, they can display the unusual properties of shape-memory and superelastic behavior.
“Shape-memory” is a unique property of certain alloys, where the material can be deformed at a
low temperature and recover its original undeformed shape by heating above a given transformation
temperature. Superelastic behavior is the ability of the material to exhibit large (on the order of
4-8%) elastic strains at certain temperatures.
