Finite element analysis of a superelastic shape memory alloy considering the effect of plasticity

In the present study, a shape memory alloy (SMA) phenomenological constitutive model is proposed that is capable of describing SMA superelastic behavior and the plasticity effect. The phase transformation constitutive model, by using strain and temperature as control variables to judge the phase transformation points in order to avoid the complexity of transformation correction, incorporates plasticity described by the von Mises isotropic hardening model. Further, the proposed model is implemented into the finite element package ANSYS by the user subroutine USERMAT. The results produced by the proposed model of simulated superelastic and plasticity behavior are compared with experimental data taken from the literature.