Fatigue analysis of electro discharge machined Nitinol 60

Nitinol 60 (NiTi60) is a shape memory alloy (SMA) where the atomic percentage of nickel is slightly higher than titanium. It advantages the material to have higher hardness and better sensitivity to phase transformation. One of the machining techniques that is preferred to cut hard material is electrical discharge machining (EDM). This study aims to examine the fatigue characteristics of a NiTi60 alloy that has undergone electro-discharge machining and examine the impact of machining parameters on microstructural changes. In this investigation first, the influence of EDM process parameters such as pulse current, voltage, pulse on time, and pulse off time on surface integrity aspects was investigated. Second, the impact of these process variables on fatigue strength was examined. The surface integrity parameters of EDM-machined specimens, such as microcracks, surface crack density (SCD), white layer thickness (WLT), and residual stress formation have been examined by various characterization techniques. The obtained results show that pulse current and voltage are dominating factors affecting SCD. The thickness of the white layer seems to be increased with the rise in the pulse current and pulse on time, and tensile kinds of residual stresses are present in the WLT region, whose magnitude is dependent on process parameters. The fatigue tests were performed using a servo hydraulic testing machine at a frequency of 20Hz for 106 number of cycles. The fatigue crack initiation, propagation, and effects of process parameters have been examined. It has been found that an increase in pulse current and voltage leads to the generation of microvoids in the WLT region and thereby causes fatigue cracks to take birth. Later on, a correlation between WLT and SCD was observed by implementing an artificial neural network (ANN) model. The accuracy of ANN model prediction is reported to be high, where WLT and SCD have a 0.98 observed correlation coefficient.