Microstructural mechanism underlying the stress recovery behavior of a Fe–Mn–Si shape memory alloy

Recovery stress governs the prestress strengthening effect of Fe–Mn–Si-based shape memory alloys in civil engineering applications. Although the effects of grain size, texture, and precipitates on recovery stresses have been extensively studied, the generation of recovery stress has not been thoroughly discussed regarding martensite growth behavior, especially considering the interaction of martensite variants. This study investigates the stress recovery and ε martensite growth behavior of a Fe–30Mn–6Si–5Cr (wt.%) alloy subjected to varying levels of deformation. The Fe–30Mn–6Si–5Cr (wt.%) alloy exhibits a yield strength of approximately 450 MPa, with an ultimate elongation of 44 % and a tensile strength of 950 MPa observed in uniaxial incremental cyclic tensile tests. Additionally, the results reveal an initial increase in recovery stress with pre-strain, peaking at 7 %, followed by a subsequent decrease with further deformation. With increasing pre-strain, the primary ε martensites initially grow parallelly, followed by the appearance of secondary martensites with a different orientation, intersecting multiple parallel primary martensites along with the increasing density of dislocations and stacking faults. A microstructural mechanism is proposed to elucidate the stress recovery behavior, encompassing the impact of primary martensites and secondary martensites interaction, and the influence of dislocations and stacking faults. This work offers microstructural scenarios that help to understand the generation of recovery stress and provides guidance for regulating recovery stress in Fe–Mn–Si-based shape memory alloys for civil engineering applications requiring prestress strengthening.