Abstract
The nickel-titanium shape memory alloy (SMA), referred to as Nitinol, exhibits a superelastic effect that can be restored to its original shape even if a significant amount of deformation is applied at room temperature, without any additional heat treatment after removal of the load. Owing to these unique material characteristics, it has widely used as displacement control devices for seismic retrofitting in civil engineering fields as well as medical, electrical, electronic and mechanical fields. Contrary to ordinarty carbon steel, superelastic SMAs are very resistant to fatigue, and have force-displacement properties depending on loading speed. The change for the mechanical properties of superelastic SMAs are experimentally inviestigated in this study when loading cycle numbers and loading speeds are different. In addition, the standardized force-displacement properties of such superelastic SMAs are proposed with an aim to efficiently design the seismic retrofitting devices made of these materials.