Engineering Aspects of Shape Memory Alloys

Book excerpt: Engineering Aspects of Shape Memory Alloys provides an understanding of shape memory by defining terms, properties, and applications. It includes tutorials, overviews, and specific design examples—all written with the intention of minimizing the science and maximizing the engineering aspects. Although the individual chapters have been written by many different authors, each one of the best in their fields, the overall tone and intent of the book is not that of a proceedings, but that of a textbook. The book consists of five parts. Part I deals with the mechanism of shape memory and the alloys that exhibit the effect. It also defines many essential terms that will be used in later parts. Part II deals primarily with constrained recovery, but to some extent with free recovery. There is an introductory paper which defines terms and principles, then several specific examples of products based on constrained recovery. Both Parts III and IV deal with actuators. Part III introduces engineering principles while Part IV presents several of the specific examples. Finally, Part V deals with superelasticity, with an introductory paper and then several specific examples of product engineering.