Confrontation between Structural and Thermal Properties of NiXTiX-YHfY .at% Ternary Alloys Obtained by three Distinct Fusion Processes

The present research focused on the experimental results obtained for the NiXTiX-YHfY .at% (where X = 50; Y = Hf = 8, 11, 14, 17 and 20 .at%) substitutive alloys with shape memory effect (SME). The samples were fused by 3 different processes and subjected to X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to demonstrate the differences between structural and thermal properties for equal compositions. In addition, chemically etched samples were used for surface observation in two types of microscopy: optical microscopy (OM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results derived from the three distinct processes were compared and discussed, confirming several significant differences in the properties studied here.