Comparative Assessment of Two Constitutive Models for Superelastic Shape-Memory Wires Against Experimental Measurements

Two constitutive models representative of two well-known modeling techniques for superelastic shape-memory wires are reviewed. The first model has been proposed by Kim and Aberayatne in the framework of finite thermo-elasticity with non-convex energy [1]. In the present article this model has been modified in order to take into account the difference between elastic moduli of austenite and martensite and to introduce the isothermal approximation proposed in [1]. The second model has been developed by Auricchio et al. within the theory of irreversible thermodynamics with internal variables [2]. Both models are temperature and strain rate dependent and they take into account thermal effects. The focus in this article is on investigating how the two models compare with experimental data obtained from testing superelastic NiTi wires used in the design of a prototypal anti-seismic device [3, 4]. After model calibration and numerical implementation, numerical simulations based on the two models are compared wit...