A Study of the Effect of Graphene on Fatigue Life of CuAlNi Shape Memory Alloy

CuAlNi shape memory alloys (SMA) are commonly used in high temperature engineering applications due to their cost-effectiveness and ease of production, as compared to Nickel-Titanium alloys. However, these alloys generally exhibit poor fatigue properties when subjected to cyclic stress. To address this issue, researchers investigated the effect of adding high-purity graphene (C) nanoplatelets on the fatigue life and hardness of CuAlNiSMA. The study found that as the number of stress cycles increased, the stress leading to fatigue failure decreased. Using Design Expert Software version 13.0, current researchers predicted the interaction between fatigue life and the percentage composition of Cu and graphene (C). A novel mathematical model is therefore developed for fatigue life. The model showed a good fit with an R2 of 0.9487, indicating that it can be employed in fatigue life studies of SMAs containing additions like graphene.