Ruggedness Evaluation of ASTM International Standard Test Methods for Shape Memory Materials: E3098 Standard Test Method for Mechanical Uniaxial Pre-strain and Thermal Free Recovery of Shape Memory Alloys

This paper evaluates the ruggedness testing of the recently released ASTM International E3098 Standard Test Method for Mechanical Uniaxial Pre-strain and Thermal Free Recovery of Shape Memory Alloys. The ruggedness experiment was designed with eight runs in two replicates, consisting of seven factors: strain rate (ė), heating and cooling rates (Ṫheat and Ṫcool, respectively), upper and lower cycle temperatures (UCT and LCT, respectively), hold time (thold), and minimum load (Fmin) imparted on the samples. The results indicate that the strain rate factor had no effect on any result variable, whereas the minimum load factor had a large effect on several result variables including the austenite start and martensite finish temperatures as well as most of the strain measurements from the thermal cycle. The lower cycle temperature factor had a large effect on the stress at maximum strain during pre-straining (ei), denoted by Si, at ~7.2 MPa, as well as the Af, at 5.47 °C. Closely following the LCT effect, Ṫheat was found to have a large effect on the austenite start temperature (As), at a value of ~2.72 °C. The testing methodology, analysis techniques, and resulting conclusions on the ruggedness of the test method are presented.