journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254

Available online at www.sciencedirect.com

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Review Article

Fatigue of Nitinol: The state-of-the-art

and ongoing challenges

M.J. Mahtabia,b, Nima Shamsaeia,b,n, M.R. Mitchellc

a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mississippi State University, Box 9552, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA
b
Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems (CAVS), Mississippi State University, Box 5405, Mississippi State, MS 39762,
USA
c
Mechanics & Materials Consulting, LLC, 4447 Acrete Lane, Flagstaff, AZ 86004, USA

ar t ic l e in f o abs tra ct

Article history: Nitinol, a nearly equiatomic alloy of nickel and titanium, has been considered for a wide
Received 31 December 2014 range of applications including medical and dental devices and implants as well as
Received in revised form aerospace and automotive components and structures. The realistic loading condition in
4 June 2015 many of these applications is cyclic; therefore, fatigue is often the main failure mode for
Accepted 7 June 2015 such components and structures. The fatigue behavior of Nitinol involves many more
Available online 16 June 2015 complexities compared with traditional metal alloys arising from its uniqueness in

Keywords: material properties such as superelasticity and shape memory effects. In this paper, a

Fatigue review of the present state-of-the-art on the fatigue behavior of superelastic Nitinol is

Shape memory alloys presented. Various aspects of fatigue of Nitinol are discussed and microstructural effects

Nitinol are explained. Effects of material preparation and testing conditions are also reviewed.

Superelastic Finally, several conclusions are made and recommendations for future works are offered.

Cyclic behavior & 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Literature review

Contents

1. Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
2. Fatigue concepts and definitions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
2.1. Fatigue specimens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
2.2. Fatigue testing techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
3. Fatigue of Nitinol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
3.1. Structural fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
3.1.1. Uniaxial fatigue behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
3.1.2. Torsional fatigue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237

n
Corresponding author at: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Mississippi State University, Box 9552, Mississippi State, Starkville,
MS 39762, USA. Tel.: þ1 662 325 2364.
E-mail address: shamsaei@me.msstate.edu (N. Shamsaei).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmbbm.2015.06.010
1751-6161/& 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254 229

3.1.3. Multiaxial fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238

3.1.4. Mean stress/strain effects on fatigue behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
3.1.5. Phase contribution to fatigue behavior. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241
3.2. Thermo-mechanical fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
3.3. Functional fatigue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 243
4. Failure mechanism and microstructural effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
5. Treatment and processing effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
6. Other parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
7. Future works and challenges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
8. Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 251

1. Introduction components (Bigeon and Morin, 1996). Expansion and con-

Nitinol, a nearly equiatomic alloy of nickel and titanium,
exhibits unique material properties such as superelasticity
(also known as pseudo-elasticity) and shape memory effects,
resistance to corrosion, and an unusual combination of
strength and ductility. The unique properties of this material
together with its biocompatibility and resistance to corrosion
have made it a preferred material for biomedical applications
(Duerig et al., 1999; El Feninat et al., 2002). Many new
applications of the Nitinol alloys have been extended to
several industries due to the discovery of their unique
properties over the years. In biomedical engineering, for
example, the popularity of Nitinol is increasing because of
its unique stress/strain response, similar to biomaterials such
as bone (Duerig et al., 1999). Therefore, Nitinol has been used
extensively in various biomedical applications such as endo-
vascular stents, vena cava filters, and endodontic files (Duerig
et al., 1999; Mohd Jani et al., 2014; Pelton et al., 2000; Plotino
et al., 2009).
In addition to bioengineering, Nitinol has been used in
aerospace, automotive, civil and structural engineering.
Actuators (Hartl and Lagoudas, 2007), structural connectors,
seals, vibration dampers, release or deployment mechanisms
(Carpenter and Lyons, 2001; Huett and Willey, 2000), inflata-
ble structures (Peng et al., 2005), manipulators (Prahlad and
Chopra, 2001), and the Mars Pathfinder (Godard et al., 2003)
are only some applications of this material in the aerospace
industry. Nitinol is also used as an energy dissipating tool for
shock and seismic application (Mohd Jani et al., 2014; Song
et al., 2006).
Nitinol components and structures are often subjected to
deformations or stresses that result in some kinds of
mechanical failures. As mentioned previously, Nitinol alloys
are used widely in various industries such as automotive,
aerospace, civil and bioengineering. The realistic loading
conditions in many of these applications are cyclic. There-
fore, fatigue is often the main failure mode for such compo-
nents and structures. Fatigue is generally defined as the
gradual and progressive deterioration of materials’ strength
under cyclic loading. Fatigue failure is unexpected and may
cause serious damage to mechanical and biomedical systems
without any warning. It has been reported that 50 to 90% of
all mechanical failures are caused by fatigue (Stephens et al.,
2000).
Some early studies have considered the fatigue of Nitinol
actuators and discovered low cycle fatigue risks for these
traction in stented blood vessels and the combined torsional
and bending deformations in endodontic files are other
examples of cyclic deformation in components made of
Nitinol alloys. Several researchers have studied the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol and investigated different aspects of
property deterioration in this material (Melton and Mercier,
1979a; Pelton et al., 2008, 2003; Plotino et al., 2009; Robertson
et al., 2012). However, due to the complexity in mechanical
response of Nitinol, its fatigue behavior is not yet completely
understood.
Compared to other metal alloys, Nitinol can withstand
greater strains prior to failure. For instance, superelastic
Nitinol may endure cyclic strain amplitudes ranging from
4% to 12% for the number of cycles at which most other alloys
would fail under cyclic strain amplitudes of 1% or less (Wilkes
and Liaw, 2000). The complexity in fatigue response of Nitinol
arises from the pronounced effects of shape memory proper-
ties and the phase transformation phenomenon on its
mechanical response. Any changes in the shape memory
properties, resulted from material compositions (i.e. amount
of nickel or titanium in a Nitinol alloy), treatment process, or
test temperature, may affect significantly the fatigue beha-
vior of these alloys. One of the main challenges in evaluating
the fatigue resistance of Nitinol is the formation of stress-
induced martensite under mechanical deformation, and
therefore, classical fatigue theories may not be applicable
directly to superelastic Nitinol alloys (Maletta et al., 2012).
Furthermore, Nitinol alloys exhibit a noticeable asymme-
try in the stress–strain behavior under tension and compres-
sion (Gall et al., 1998; Gall and Sehitoglu, 1999). This
asymmetry in stress response for strain-controlled tests
may result in a significant compressive mean stress in low-
cycle regime, where stress-induced martensite exists. Simi-
larly for force-controlled tests, there may be a large amount
of tensile mean strain as a result of asymmetry in strain
response. Presence of mean strains/stresses may significantly
influence the fatigue behavior of Nitinol; compressive mean
stresses generally increase the fatigue life and tensile mean
strains are known to reduce the fatigue life. Considering
these challenges, not many fatigue life predictive models
have been proposed for these alloys in the open literature.
Miniature components made from Nitinol, require mon-
itoring the fatigue initiation rather than the fatigue crack
growth since the critical crack size, in a fracture mechanics
sense, is quite small. The interest in the current state-of-
practice for Nitinol alloys is mainly to control crack initiation
230 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Nomenclature
Af austenite finish temperature—the temperature
above which Nitinol is fully austenitic
As austenite start temperature—the temperature at
which, upon heating, martensitic Nitinol begins
transforming to austenite
EA austenite modulus—modulus of elasticity for
superelastic Nitinol corresponding to the initial
linear section in the stress–strain curve
EM stress-induced martensite modulus—modulus of
elasticity for superelastic Nitinol corresponding
to the linear section beyond stress plateau in
stress–strain curve
b fatigue strength exponent in Basquin or Coffin–
Manson equations, the slope of the stress/elastic
strain-life line in log–log coordinates
c fatigue ductility exponent in Coffin–Manson equa-
tion, the slope of the plastic strain-life line in log–
log coordinates
d wire diameter
Mf martensite finish temperature—the temperature at
which, upon cooling, Nitinol is fully martensitic
Ms martensite start temperature—the temperature at
which, upon cooling, austenitic Nitinol begins
transforming to martensite
Nf number of cycles to failure—number of cycles that a
fatigue sample experiences before failure occurs
under an applied cyclic stress or strain. NOTE: 2Nf
is defined as the number of reversals to failure.
NiXTiY Nitinol of nickel (X atomic percent) and titanium
(Y atomic percent)
Rσ stress ratio—ratio of the minimum to maximum
stresses (σmin/σmax) in a constant amplitude force-
controlled cyclic loading
Rε strain ratio—ratio of the minimum to maximum
strains (εmin/εmax) in a constant amplitude strain-
controlled cyclic loading
T test temperature
α cyclic strain coefficient in the modified Coffin–Man-
son equation
β cyclic strain exponent in the modified Coffin–Man-
son equation
ΔT relative temperature—the difference between the
test temperature, T, and austenite finish tempera-
ture, Af: ΔT ¼T  Af
Δεs/2 shear strain amplitude—the half of the shear strain
range in a torsional fatigue test
Δε strain range—difference between the maximum
and minimum strains in a constant amplitude
cyclic loading: Δε ¼εmax εmin
Δσ stress range—difference between the maximum
and minimum stresses in a constant amplitude
force-controlled cyclic loading: Δσ¼ σmax σmin
εa strain amplitude—half of the difference between
the maximum strain and minimum strain in a
constant amplitude strain-controlled cyclic load-
ing: (εmax  εmin)/2
εeq equivalent (von Mises) strain—that is calculated
based on the von Mises
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ffi equivalent strain equa-
tion: εeq ¼ ε2t þ 43 ε2s
εs shear strain—the angular change in a square
element under torsional stress
εt axial strain—the change in length divided by the
initial length
ε0f fatigue ductility coefficient in the Coffin–Manson
equation is the intercept at one reversal of the
plastic strain-life line
εm mean strain—average of the maximum and mini-
mum strains in a constant amplitude strain-
controlled cyclic loading: εm ¼(εmaxþεmin)/2
εmax maximum strain—maximum strain in a constant
amplitude strain-controlled cyclic loading
εmin minimum strain—minimum strain in a constant
amplitude strain-controlled cyclic loading
εp plastic strain—the permanent, non-recoverable
component of the total strain
εpr proportional strain—the strain value in a super-
elastic Nitinol, for which, the stress–strain rela-
tionship is essentially linear. This value
corresponds to σpr
εAM
F martensite finish strain—the strain related to the
ending point of the stress plateau in a super-
elastic Nitinol. Subscript F stands for finish and
superscript AM indicates the Austenite-Marten-
site transformation
εAM
S martensite start strain—the strain related to the
starting point of the stress plateau in a super-
elastic Nitinol. Subscript S stands for start and
superscript AM indicates the Austenite- Marten-
site transformation. In some articles this has
been referred to as the “elastic limit” for super-
elastic Nitinol.
εtr transformation strain—the range of the strain asso-
ciated with the transformation between the aus-
tenite and martensite phases in a superelastic
Nitinol, calculated as the difference between the
total strain and the strain related to the starting
point of stress-induced martensite, εAM
S :
εtr ¼ ε εS
AM
ν Poisson’s ratio—the negative of the ratio of trans-
verse to axial strain
ρ radius of curvature in a rotating-bending test setup
for fatigue testing of wires
σa stress amplitude—half of the difference between
the maximum stress and the minimum stress in
a constant amplitude force-controlled cyclic load-
ing; σa ¼(σmax σmin)/2
σeq equivalent (von Mises) stress—that is calculated
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
based on the following equation: σ eq ¼ σ 2 þ 3 τ2
σ 0f fatigue strength coefficient in Basquin or Coffin–
Manson equations as the intercept at one reversal
of the stress/elastic strain-life line
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
σm mean stress—average of the maximum and mini-
mum stresses in a constant amplitude force-
controlled cyclic loading: σm ¼ (σmaxþσmin)/2
σmax maximum stress—maximum stress in a constant
amplitude force-controlled cyclic loading
σmin minimum stress—minimum stress in a constant
amplitude force-controlled cyclic loading
σpr proportional stress—the stress value in a super-
elastic Nitinol for which the stress–strain rela-
tionship is essentially linear. This value
corresponds to εpr
because the failure in these materials takes place shortly
after the crack nucleation (Robertson et al., 2012). On the
other hand, difficulties concerned with experimental work
and measurements have been an obstacle in such studies.
In this paper, some basic definitions and concepts of
fatigue behavior and analysis for metallic materials are first
introduced. Various aspects of fatigue of Nitinol alloys are
presented subsequently and results from previous studies are
discussed. Effects of material preparation and testing techni-
ques are reviewed and recommendations to improve the
fatigue resistance of Nitinol are investigated. An attempt is
made here to describe the complexity in the fatigue behavior
of Nitinol based on its mechanical and microstructural
features. The contradictions obtained in the literature are
analyzed critically and some challenging topics for future
research are recommended. Finally, the overall conclusions
on the fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys are presented. The
main focus here is on the macroscopic aspects of the fatigue
of Nitinol and minimal discussions on the microstructural
aspects are presented. It should be noted that most of the
discussions are related to the superelastic Nitinol that is used
in the vast majority of present applications. However, some
discussions on Nitinol in the martensitic phase are also
made. Although we have tried to collect information from
many published documents in the open literature, this article
is by no means comprehensive.
2. Fatigue concepts and definitions
In this section, some terminologies and basic concepts of
fatigue of metallic materials are reviewed. Two major
approaches to represent the fatigue data for metallic materi-
als are the stress-life and strain-life methods. In these
methods, the fatigue data is presented as the stress or strain
amplitude against the fatigue life in terms of the number of
cycles, Nf, or reversals, 2Nf, to failure. Different analytical
models have been used to represent mathematically the
fatigue strength of the materials. These methods are briefly
described in this section.
Basquin (1910)’s relation has been used widely to relate
the stress amplitude to the life of the material at failure. This
relationship is simply a power-law function that expresses
the stress amplitude as a function of number of cycles (or
reversals) to failure. The general form of the Basquin’s
231
σ AM
F martensite finish stress—stress related to the end-
ing point of the stress plateau in a superelastic
Nitinol. Subscript F stands for finish and super-
script AM indicates the Austenite-Martensite
transformation
σ AM
S martensite start stress—stress related to the start-
ing point of the stress plateau in a superelastic
Nitinol. Subscript S stands for start and super-
script AM indicates the Austenite-Martensite
transformation
equation is often presented as in Eq. (1):
 b
σ a ¼ σ 0f 2Nf ð1Þ
In this equation, σa is the applied alternating stress, 2Nf is
the number of reversals before the material’s failure under σa.
0
The parameters σ f and b are the fatigue strength coefficient
and fatigue strength exponent, respectively.
In terms of strain, the total strain amplitude, Δε/2, can be
separated into elastic strain amplitude, Δεe/2, and plastic
strain amplitude, Δεp/2, as presented in Eq. (2):
Δε Δεe Δεp
¼ εa ¼ þ ð2Þ
2 2 2
For elastic strain, this relationship can be formulated
using Basquin’s relation as follows:
Δεe σa σ 0f  b
¼ ¼ 2Nf ð3Þ
2 E E
where E is the elastic modulus of the material. The plastic
strain amplitude, Δεp/2, can be related to fatigue life using the
Coffin–Manson relationship (Coffin and Tavernelli, 1959;
Manson and Dolan, 1966) as follows:
Δεp  c
¼ ε0f 2Nf ð4Þ
2
Finally, the total strain-life can be presented using the
following equation:
0
σf  b 0  c
εa ¼ 2Nf þ εf 2Nf ð5Þ
E
In Eqs. (3)–(5), ε0f , σ 0f , b and c are material constants that are
0 0
determined experimentally; εf and σ f are the material fatigue
ductility coefficient and fatigue strength coefficient, respec-
tively. Constant b is the strength exponent and constant c is
called the fatigue ductility exponent.
Another important factor that can influence the fatigue
life of a material is the presence of a constant force, in
addition to the cyclic force. Since the constant force can be
treated as the mean of the alternating force, several attempts
(Dowling, 2009; Ince and Glinka, 2011) have been made to
consider the effects of mean stress/strain on the fatigue
behavior of materials. The tensile mean stress usually
reduces the fatigue resistance, i.e. life, while the compressive
mean stress may increase the fatigue life. Two of the more
common methods for evaluating the mean stress effects on
fatigue life are Goodman and Morrow models (Stephens et al.,
2000). Both models illustrate a reducing tolerable alternating
stress with increasing mean stress amplitude.
232 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
a b
Solid circular Thin-walled tubular
dogbone specimen specimen
Fig. 1 – Typical test specimens used for fatigue characterization of Nitinol alloys.
2.1. Fatigue specimens
Different types of specimens are required to facilitate various
testing techniques for fatigue evaluation of Nitinol. Wires are
the simplest and the most commonly used shape for Nitinol
fatigue characterizations. Fatigue testing of wires is per-
formed mainly with a rotating-bending testing technique
according to ASTM E2948-2014-Rotating Bending Fatigue
Tests of Solid Round Fine Wire (ASTM E2948-14, 2014).
However, wires may not be the most appropriate type of
specimens for fatigue characterization under all types of
deformation such as axial compression or torsion. Dogbone-
shaped specimens, shown in Fig. 1(a) and (b), are more
suitable for fatigue testing specifically under compression or
torsional deformations (e.g. Jensen, 2005; Subramaniam,
1998). Dogbone specimens are used widely in the form of
solid or hollow. Hollow specimens are more suitable for
torsional fatigue analysis because the shear stress is consid-
ered to be approximately uniform on the cross section of
thin-walled tubular specimens. In some studies, stent-like
diamond-shape components, shown in Fig. 1(c), have been
employed in displacement-controlled fatigue testing (Pelton
et al., 2008; Tolomeo et al., 2000). Finite element analysis is
required to calculate the deformation-induced stress and
strain terms at the critical elements of these components.
In some studies, flat dogbone Nitinol specimens (Fig. 1(d))
have also been used under uniaxial cyclic tests (Nayan et al.,
2008).
2.2. Fatigue testing techniques
A simple and commonly used fatigue test method for Nitinol
wires is the rotating-bending test, which is suitable for
testing Nitinol wires used in several medical devices sub-
jected to a bending (or axial) loading. Several experimental
studies have used rotating-bending tests to evaluate the
fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys (e.g. Bertacchini et al.,
2009; Miyazaki et al., 1999; Pelton et al., 2013). In certain
cases, the results from rotating-bending tests may be suitable
for fatigue evaluation purposes (Duerig et al., 1999; ASTM
E2948-14, 2014). A rotating-bending testing machine is com-
prised mainly of a motor to rotate the wire and a constraint to
maintain the strain amplitude. Rotating-bending fatigue
testing has become a common test setup for the structural
fatigue evaluation of Nitinol wires (Tobushi et al., 1998). Two
common configurations of the rotating-bending test setup are
shown in Fig. 2. Both types of test setups are used to conduct
fully reversed, rotating-bending fatigue. In these setups, the
c d
Diamond-shape Flat dogbone
components specimen
Rotating
motor
ρ Guide
Nitinol wire
Nitinol wire
Bushing
Rotating Mandrel
motor ρ
Fig. 2 – Configurations for the rotating-bending fatigue test of
Nitinol wires.
wire is bent to 1801 and approximately 901 as shown in Fig. 2
(a) and (b), respectively.
Rotating-bending test method is an appropriate technique
for collecting strain-based fatigue data for wire specimens
under zero mean strain conditions (i.e. fully reversed loading,
Rε ¼ 1). Testing apparatus is generally comprised of a
variable-speed motor and a sensor for counting the number
of rotations (i.e. cycles or reversals). In some cases, a silicon
oil or de-ionized water bath and an electric heater with a
temperature control unit may be used to facilitate a constant-
temperature test environment. In this method, wire is bent to
a specific curvature with known radius of curvature (ρ) in
order to apply an alternating strain amplitude. The strain
amplitude is then approximated by the ratio of wire radius
(d/2) to the radius of the curvature as follows:
d
εa ¼ ð6Þ
2ρ
Various strain amplitudes can be attained by altering the
wire diameter and the radius of the curvature. Alternating
strains are then applied by rotating the curved wire about its
longitudinal axis as presented in Fig. 2. For the rotating-
bending test setup shown in Fig. 2(a), the wire is bent to an
ellipse-like shape to achieve its minimum radius of curvature
and maximum strain at the mid-length. The length of the
wire specimen, excluding the length embedded in chucks, is
equal to 5.25ρ (ASTM E2948-14, 2014). This testing can also be
conducted in guided condition to reduce the vibration and
maintain the wire specimen in plane. The support guides are
located out of the area of maximum curvature, where the
fatigue failure typically occurs.
Pelton et al. (2013) used the same concept by employing
mandrels of different radii to bend the wires into smooth
curves as shown in Fig. 2(b). This method is a guided test
setup where mandrels act as support guides. The mandrels
should be made of low friction material, such as polyoxy-
methylene or polytetrafluoroethylene (ASTM E2948-14, 2014)
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
and machined carefully to reduce the effects of friction
between the wire and the mandrel that may result in scuffing
the Nitinol wires. A comparison of the various rotating-
bending test setups for fatigue testing of Nitinol is reported
by Norwich (2014) and more details on fatigue testing of thin
wires can be found in the recently published standard ASTM
E2948-14 (2014). In addition to the rotating-bending test,
uniaxial and multiaxial testing using closed-loop fatigue
testing machines are also common for Nitinol. Standard test
methods for the evaluation of the fatigue behavior of metallic
materials can be found in ASTM Committee E08 Fatigue and
Fracture series of the test standards. ASTM E466 Force-
Controlled (ASTM E466-07, 2007) and ASTM E606 Strain-
Controlled (ASTM E606/E606M-12, 2012) provide the regula-
tions for such fatigue testing.
A major difference between the rotating-bending fatigue
machines and the more common closed-loop uniaxial fatigue
machines is the distribution of stress/strain over the speci-
men’s cross section (i.e. volume). In the rotating-bending test,
the outer layer of the specimen (i.e. the surface of the wire)
experiences the maximum amount of stress/strain during the
test, while the stress/strain values are proportionately less in
inner layers. Nevertheless, the entire specimen’s cross sec-
tion (i.e. volume) experiences the same amount of stress/
strain in the uniaxial fatigue machines. Due to the difference
in stress/strain distribution across the section, the effects of
surface finish quality on fatigue behavior may be more
pronounced in the rotary-bending tests. However, impurities
and inclusions in the material may govern the fatigue
behavior of the specimen in the uniaxial fatigue test to a
greater degree as compared to the one in the rotating-
bending test, particularly in the gigacycle range.
3. Fatigue of Nitinol
The fatigue of Nitinol alloys is classified into three different
categories in the literature (Van Humbeeck, 1991); (1) struc-
tural fatigue that is a reduction in strength under cyclic loads,
(2) functional fatigue, which is a loss in functional properties
such as superelasticity and shape memory effects (Eggeler
et al., 2004), and (3) thermal fatigue that is a change in
material properties such as transformation temperatures
Fig. 3 – Schematic stress–strain curves of Nitinol in different
phases. T represents the test temperature (Pelton et al.,
2000).
233
under thermal cyclic loads (Pelton, 2011). From the micro-
scopic point of view, the failure process in Nitinol is generally
comprised of two main stages including crack initiation and
crack propagation. The crack initiation stage is typically very
slow, compared with the crack propagation stage. The rapid
rupture of the cracked surface is reported in (Condorelli et al.,
2010), which suggests the critical crack size of Nitinol alloys
to be comparatively small.
3.1. Structural fatigue
Similar to any other metallic material, Nitinol alloys experi-
ence a reduction in strength under repeated forces and
consequently fail at a stress level smaller than their nominal
tensile strength. As previously mentioned, a majority of
fatigue analysis of Nitinol alloys has been focused on the
crack initiation approaches. However, there are a number of
studies using the fatigue crack-growth approach (McKelvey
and Ritchie, 2001; Robertson and Ritchie, 2007; Vaidyanathan
et al., 2000). Therefore, the primary focus of this paper is on
the fatigue initiation stage and the fatigue crack-growth
studies are discussed minimally.
3.1.1. Uniaxial fatigue behavior
Different deformation approaches can be employed to study
the fatigue behavior of engineering materials. Each approach
illustrates various aspects of the fatigue response of the
material under study. Stress-life and strain-life methods are
the two more common approaches in fatigue life analysis of
materials. Selection of the most appropriate method is
usually based on several parameters such as type of the
deformation or loading of the component in real-world
application, mechanical behavior of the material, and the
feasibility of the testing method. In this section, results from
different studies on the fatigue behavior of the Nitinol alloys
are reviewed.
The mechanical behavior of Nitinol depends significantly
on its “characteristic temperatures”. Typically, there are four
characteristic temperature values for Nitinol: Mf, Ms, As, Af.
The martensite finish temperature, Mf, is the temperature
below which the material is fully martensitic. The martensite
start temperature, Ms, is the temperature that, upon cooling,
austenitic Nitinol alloy starts transforming to martensitic
phase. The austenite start temperature, As, is the tempera-
ture at which, upon heating, martensitic Nitinol tends to
transform to the austenitic phase. Finally, the austenite finish
temperature, Af, is the temperature above which Nitinol
maintains the austenitic phase under unstrained condition.
The relations of these temperatures with respect to the test
temperature dictate the overall mechanical response of the
material. As illustrated in Fig. 3, the stress–strain relation-
ships of Nitinol alloys are dependent on the working tem-
perature. The material may also show superelastic or shape
memory behavior depending on the test temperature with
respect to the transformation temperatures. Therefore, it is
important to determine the characteristic temperatures for
any Nitinol alloy prior to further analyses.
3.1.1.1. Stress-life fatigue behavior. The force-controlled tests
and stress-life method are very common for fatigue analysis
234 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254

of materials. Nevertheless, the majority of fatigue studies on

Nitinol have followed the strain-controlled test setups and
strain-life approach. It should be noted that Nitinol alloys,
specifically superelastic alloys, are also often used for force
carrying applications such as reinforcing bars in concrete
bridges (Saiidi and Wang, 2006) and endodontic files. There-
fore, it seems necessary to study the fatigue behavior of
shape memory alloys employing the stress-life approach as
well. Employing different techniques for cyclic fatigue testing
of Nitinol, force- (stress-) controlled or displacement- (strain-)
controlled, can also affect the fatigue resistance of Nitinol by
Fig. 4 – Stress-life fatigue curves for different phases of
influencing the kinematic irreversibility, resulted from dis-
Nitinol alloys (Melton and Mercier, 1979a)—Austenite finish
location movements, leading to the accumulation of the
temperature is approximated here as: Af ¼Msþ40 1C
permanent deformation (Nayan et al., 2008). On the other
(Robertson et al., 2012).
hand, representing the fatigue data in different forms may
help to better understand the fatigue behavior of the material
in different applications. In other words, using stress-life data
for the applications in which the loading is force-based can
be more appropriate than the strain-life representation. For
instance, a rotary dental instrument made of Nitinol is a
force-based application as it is designed to carry certain
forces and the stress-life approach more appropriately repre-
sents the physics of the situation.
Two of the earliest comprehensive studies on the fatigue of
Nitinol alloys were performed by Melton and Mercier (1979a,
1979b). Their works included both stress-life and strain-life
approaches at room temperature (  22 1C) using specimens
with different martensite start temperatures, Ms. Although
they reported the martensite start temperature, Ms, of mate- Fig. 5 – Fully reversed stress-life data for superelastic Nitinol
rials, the austenite finish temperature, Af, is also used in alloys (Miyazaki et al., 1988). T is the test temperature and Af
latter literature as an indicator of the Nitinol shape memory is the material’s austenite finish temperature.
character. Robertson et al. (2012) suggested that Af is approxi-
mately 40 1C greater than Ms (i.e. Af ¼ Msþ40 1C). This approx-
imation is used in this document.
Force-controlled tests were performed in a fully reversed
condition (Rσ ¼  1) in Melton and Mercier (1979a)’s study.
They presented stress-life diagrams for two different compo-
sitions of Nitinol; Ni49.9Ti50.1 and Ni49.7Ti50.3 (throughout this
paper NixTiy indicates a Nitinol alloy with x amount of nickel
and y amount of titanium, both in atomic percentage, except
as stated otherwise). Their results revealed the strong influ-
ence of the Nitinol metallurgical phases on fatigue behavior,
as shown in Fig. 4. Superelastic Nitinol exhibited superior
stress-life fatigue resistance compared to the mixed-mode
Fig. 6 – Stress-life fatigue data for Nitinol wires at different
and martensitic Nitinol.
temperatures (Kim and Miyazaki, 1997). T is the test
Miyazaki et al. (1988) provided a comprehensive study on the
temperature.
fatigue of Nitinol. Their results include stress-life fatigue for
unique specimens (Ni50.8Ti49.2) with Af ¼ 27 1C at different test
temperatures as shown in Fig. 5. The stress-life curves from with As   1 1C and Af ¼ 23 1C at room temperature (i.e. 22 1C).
their study are linear at high test temperatures and bi-linear These tests were conducted under non-zero mean stress
at lower test temperatures. The lower test temperatures are condition with Rσ ¼ 0.1. Stress-life data from Nayan et al.
very close to the austenite finish temperature, Af. These data (2008)’s study also indicate two linear sections that have a
clearly indicate that for the stress-life fatigue approach and at common point at a stress level very close to the critical stress
test temperatures above Af, where Nitinol exhibits super- required for inducing martensite.
elastic behavior, the fatigue life increases as the test tem- Stress-life fatigue data from Kim and Miyazaki (1997)’s
perature increases. Moumni et al. (2009, 2005) also reported study) was later analyzed by Pelton et al. (2000). These data
that the stress-life fatigue results for superelastic Ni48.7Ti51.3 are presented in Fig. 6 for Ni50.9Ti49.1 with Af ¼ 60 1C and
can be presented well in a linear form in a semi-log plot. As ¼ 37 1C. As seen from these plots, the stress-life data for
Nayan et al. (2008) also investigated the uniaxial tension– superelastic Nitinol wires can be expressed linearly by a
tension fatigue behavior of flat dogbone Ni50.7Ti49.1 specimens Wöhler curve in the semi-log plot that are similar to the
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254 235

results from Moumni et al. (2005) and Miyazaki et al. (1988). It

can be concluded from these studies that in the stress-life
approach the fatigue lives of Nitinol alloys increase with
increasing test temperature. Pelton et al. (2000) also reported
a temperature dependent fatigue limit for the stress-life data
in which the fatigue limit increases with increasing test
temperature toward Af.
Analysis of the fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys using
stress-life results illustrates a drastic reduction in fatigue life
with increasing stress amplitude, which is similar to other
metal alloys. It also reveals the sensitivity of the results to
test temperature. However, the fatigue resistance of Nitinol
does not reduce with an increase in the test temperature,
which is in contrast to other metallic materials.
Although stress-life representation of the fatigue data is
very common in metal fatigue analysis, it is not used widely
for fatigue analysis of Nitinol alloys; hence, there are only
limited studies in the literature employing this approach for
Nitinol. Currently there is no reliable formulation in the
present literature that relates the stress amplitude to the
failure life for Nitinol alloys. However, it seems that the
stress-life fatigue data for Nitinol may be expressed by a
straight line on the semi-log plot, as illustrated in Fig. 6.

3.1.1.2. Strain-life fatigue behavior. Superelastic Nitinol alloys

may tolerate a large pseudo-elastic (recoverable) strain at
almost a constant stress level when the stress reaches a
certain level, so-called the plateau stress as seen in Fig. 3.
Consequently, the stress–strain “modulus” relationship is
linear only for a minimal strain range, compared to the total
recoverable strain. A reasonable linear correlation between
the number of cycles to failure and strain amplitude was
reported for Nitinol alloys in the log–log plot (McNichols et al.,
1981; Melton and Mercier, 1979a). Moreover, in many biome-
dical applications of Nitinol (e.g. stents), the component is
under cyclic deformations, requiring the material to resist
fatigue failure. Therefore, strain-controlled testing proce-
dures are more appropriate for the fatigue analysis of Nitinol
alloys. In addition, strain-based testing at Rε ¼ 1 does not
require very specialized equipment since these tests can be
conducted using the simple rotating-bending test setup for
wires, as was described previously in Fig. 2. For these reasons,
majority of fatigue studies on shape memory alloys and
specifically for Nitinol are based on the strain-life (ε–N)
approach.
Miyazaki et al. (1999) observed different trends for strain-life
fatigue data of martensitic and austenitic Ni50Ti50 at different
test temperatures as shown in Fig. 7. The specimens were
water quenched after annealing at 400 1C. A silicon oil bath
was used and the temperature was controlled by an electric
heater and a fan in order to maintain a constant test
temperature. In strain-life representation of the fatigue data,
there is a reverse relationship between the test temperature
and the fatigue life of Nitinol for test temperatures above Af
and at εa40.7% (Miyazaki et al., 1999) as presented in Fig. 7(a).
Therefore, as the test temperature decreases, the fatigue life
of the superelastic Nitinol specimens increases. Furthermore,
a convergence of strain-life curves at 105 cycles can be seen
in Fig. 7(b), which implies the insensitivity of the strain-life
curve to temperature in the long life regime (Kim, 2002). It is
Fig. 7 – Effects of test temperature on the rotating-bending
fatigue life for a Nitinol: (a) (Miyazaki et al., 1999) (b) (Kim,
2002). T is the test temperature and Af is the austenite finish
temperature.
worth mentioning that a few studies have suggested a fatigue
limit in the long life regime for strain-life fatigue curves of
Nitinol alloys (Eggeler et al., 2004; Pelton et al., 2013).
Kim (2002) studied the fatigue behavior of three binary
combinations of nickel and titanium with Ni contents of
50%, 50.5%, and 50.85%. The corresponding austenite finish
temperatures of the materials were 87.7, 85, and 60.4 1C. The
specimens were annealed, water quenched, and electro-
polished before subjected to fatigue tests at four different
temperatures; 20, 50, 80, and 110 1C. Kim (2002) also observed
an increase in the fatigue life with decreasing test tempera-
ture, as illustrated in Fig. 7(b) for 50.5% Ni content, which
verified the observations made by Miyazaki et al. (1999).
Tobushi et al. (1997) performed rotating-bending tests on
Ni55.3Ti44.7 wires at different temperatures; 30, 60, and 80 1C.
The austenite finish temperature for this Nitinol alloy was
Af ¼50 1C; therefore, the specimens were martensitic at 30 1C
and superelastic at 60 and 80 1C. Tests were conducted in air
and also in the water bath to maintain a constant tempera-
ture condition. Strain-life data from this study, shown in
Fig. 8, indicates that the martensitic Nitinol alloy has greater
fatigue life as compared to the superelastic Nitinol. Tobushi
et al.’s data is in agreement with the findings of other
researchers such as Miyazaki et al. (1999) and Kim (2002),
where they found greater fatigue lives for mixed-phase
Nitinol than those for superelastic Nitinol under strain-life
fatigue as shown in Fig. 7. Tobushi et al. (1997) observed a
236 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 8 – Strain-life fatigue data for Ni55.3Ti44.7 wt% at constant
test temperatures, T (Tobushi et al., 1997). The constant test
temperatures were maintained using water bath.
Fig. 9 – Schematic strain-life fatigue regimes of superelastic
Nitinol in log–log scale. T is the test temperature and Af is
the material austenite finish temperature.
linear relationship between strain and failure life in log–log
plots for εa40.8%, as shown in Fig. 8. The strain-life data from
the tests in this high-strain region (corresponding to Nfo104
cycles) were expressed by a power law function as:
εa ¼ αNf β ð7Þ
where α is the cyclic strain coefficient and β is the strain
exponent. The β ¼0.235 was obtained from the regression
analysis for experiments conducted in air in Tobushi et al.
(1997)’s study). They mentioned that the β value was less
than the typical strain exponent for other metals. However,
the β value obtained from the experiments that were con-
ducted in the water bath, was calculated to be 0.47, which
was comparable to that for other metallic materials (Tobushi
et al., 1997). The comparison made by Tobushi et al. on the
magnitude of the exponent β may not be appropriate since
there is a basic difference in the exponents of the original
Coffin–Manson relation and the equation proposed by
Tobushi et al.; the c (fatigue ductility exponent) in the
Coffin–Manson relationship is an indicator of the change in
the plastic strain, while there is no plastic strain for super-
elastic Nitinol alloys unless it is fully martensitic.
Maletta et al. (2012) also attempted to use the Coffin–Manson
relationship for both elastic and plastic (i.e. residual strain)
strain amplitudes and the failure life of the superelastic
Nitinol alloy in low-cycle fatigue regime. They conducted
strain-controlled fatigue tests on flat dogbone-shaped
Ni50.8Ti49.2 specimens at room temperature (25 1C). Austenite
finish temperature of this alloy was Af ¼ 14 1C, thus, the alloy
was superelastic. Cyclic strain amplitudes were chosen such
that the stress-induced martensite was formed in the speci-
mens. The value of β calculated from their study was 0.914 for
the residual amplitude and 0.171 for the elastic strain ampli-
tude. The elastic strain amplitude in their study was con-
sidered as strain amplitudes less than the strain
corresponding to the proportional limit, εpr (i.e. the initial
linear “modulus” portion of stress–strain curve in Fig. 3).
However, they used only the Coffin–Manson relation for the
stress-induced martensitic Nitinol, i.e. the stress plateau in
Fig. 3; therefore, the equations may not be applicable to the
fully austenitic or thermally martensitic Nitinol.
In another study, Kollerov et al. (2013) considered the Coffin–
Manson relationship for low-cycle fatigue of superelastic and
shape memory Nitinol alloys. Materials were binary Nitinol
with three different nickel contents; 55.7, 55.8, and 54.7 in
weight percent, and except for one material, all the speci-
mens were superelastic at the test temperature of 21 1C.
Specimens were tested using rotating-bending test technique
with strain amplitudes between 0.75% and 4.8%. Kollerov
et al. (2013) proposed a modified Coffin–Manson equation for
strain levels above 2% as a function of the maximum
recoverable strain, which can be completely recovered after
unloading for superelastic Nitinol, or by heating up to a
temperature above Af, for thermally martensitic Nitinol.
Kollerov et al. also found a good correlation between their
modified Coffin–Manson equation in low-cycle fatigue (i.e. 2%
oεao5%) for both superelastic and shape memory Nitinol
alloys. In the proposed modified Coffin–Manson equation, the
strain exponent was a function of stress plateau and the
modulus of elasticity, whereas the strain coefficient was a
function of maximum recoverable strain, stress plateau, and
the modulus of elasticity. They, however, did not find a
correlation between the high-cycle fatigue strength of Nitinol
alloys and the maximum recoverable strain. Furthermore,
they suggested that the high-cycle fatigue resistance of
Nitinol alloys could be improved by microstructural enhance-
ment such as decreasing impurities or by providing nano-
size, Ni-rich particle precipitation and increasing dislocation
density.
Pelton et al. (2013) recently divided the strain-life fatigue
data of superelastic Nitinol (i.e. the test temperature above Af)
to four distinct regimes in log–log plots; very low-cycle
(Nr 103 cycles), low-cycle (N103 cycles), mid-cycle
(103 r Nr105 cycles), and high-cycle (NZ105 cycles). This
classification is comprehensively discussed by Pelton et al.
(2013).
A schematic, explaining the general strain-life fatigue beha-
vior of the superelastic Nitinol in log–log scale is presented in
Fig. 9. This figure is mainly generated in this review article
based on the observations by Miyazaki et al. (1999) and Pelton
et al. (2013). As can be seen in this figure, the very low-cycle
regime or first regime in the strain-life plot is related to very
high strain amplitudes, εa ZεAM F , region D in Fig. 10. The
material in this region is fully martensitic and exhibits both
elastic and plastic behaviors. The fatigue life decreases
almost linearly in logarithmic form with increasing strain
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 10 – Multiple phases for superelastic Nitinol; (A)
austenitic linear elastic region, (B) transition from linear
elastic to stress plateau region, (C) stress plateau region, and
(D) fully detwinned (deformed) martensite region.
amplitude. The low-cycle or second regime contains the data
for high strain amplitudes (εAM S rεa r εF ), which corresponds
AM
to the mixed austenite/stress-induced martensite phase (i.e.
the region C of Fig. 10). In this region, the strain-life fatigue
behavior has a very steep slope and seems to be almost
independent of the strain amplitude. The fatigue for this
range of strains is nearly constant around 1000 cycles. The
seemingly independence of the fatigue life in this regime may
indicate the dominating role of stress, rather than strain, in
the fatigue failure of the superelastic Nitinol in the stress
plateau region. The mid-cycle or third regime includes the
strain amplitudes between approximately εpr and εAM S , where
the fatigue life constantly decreases as the strain amplitude
increases. This regime corresponds to region B in Fig. 10. The
fatigue behavior in this regime is mainly related to the
transition between the linear elastic behaviors in austenite
phase to the stress-induced martensite phase (i.e. the stress
plateau of the superelastic stress–strain plot, shown in
Fig. 10). The high-cycle or fourth regime corresponds to
region A in Fig. 10, where εrεpr. It is worth mentioning that
the second turning point in these curves (point PAM in Fig. 9)
may be related to the starting point of the stress-induced
martensitic phase (point εAM s in Fig. 10). The third turning
point (point Ppr in Fig. 9) may correspond to the “proportional
limit” of this material (point εpr in Fig. 10) as explained by
Miyazaki et al. (1999). Pelton et al. (2013) suggested that a
simplistic log–log linear relationship can be used to represent
the fatigue behavior in first, third and fourth regions with β
coefficients that decrease with increasing temperature. The
equation for the fourth regime is very similar to the classical
fatigue for linear elastic metals and the Basquin (1910)’s
model. The β values calculated for superelastic Nitinol alloys
from Pelton et al. (2013) study are in the range of 0.3oβo0.38
for the first and third regions, which indicates that the rate of
fatigue degradation is almost the same in these regions.
However, β is between 0.03–0.07 in the high-cycle fatigue,
indicating a faster degradation of the material with an
increased strain.
For thermally martensitic Nitinol alloys, no such distinct
regimes may be observed in fatigue data. The data for this
type of Nitinol alloys can be classified into two regions, where
237
Fig. 11 – Torsional fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys using (a)
shear stress-life approach for martensitic Nitinol (Jensen,
2005) and (b) shear strain-life approach for superelastic
Nitinol (Runciman et al., 2011).
the behavior in each region is approximately linear in a log–
log scale. It is notable that no distinct low-cycle fatigue
regime as seen in superelastic alloys, can be observed since
there is no stress-induced phase transformation in thermally
martensitic Nitinol alloys.
3.1.2. Torsional fatigue
Torsional deformation, similar to tension, compression and
bending, is one of the typical loading conditions for Nitinol
alloys. There are only a limited number of fatigue-related
studies and data on torsional fatigue of Nitinol alloys in the
present literature (Jensen, 2005; Predki et al., 2006; Runciman
et al., 2011). The results of separate torsional fatigue studies
on Nitinol alloys, performed by Jensen (2005) for a martensitic
Nitinol in force-controlled condition and Runciman et al.
(2011) for a superelastic Nitinol in strain-controlled condition
are presented in Fig. 11(a) and (b), respectively. Unlike
rotating-bending and uniaxial fatigue, the fatigue of Nitinol
under strictly torsional deformations is similar to the tradi-
tional fatigue curves for other metallic materials. In other
words, the very distinct multi-linear curve of shape memory
alloys is not observed for the torsional tests in the log-log
representation of the test results. The general reduction in
the strength of the material is observed clearly under torsion
for both martensitic and superelastic Nitinol.
Jensen (2005) was among the few researchers who con-
sidered the torsional fatigue of Nitinol. He studied the fatigue
238 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
behavior of Ni49.9Ti50.1 alloy under force-controlled torsional
tests. The tests continued until the specimen failed or up to
105 cycles as run-out at 23 1C. The stress-life data from these
experiments are shown in Fig. 11(a). No clear information on
the metallurgical phase condition or the transformation
temperatures of the material under study were presented;
however, according to the stress–strain curves, it appears to
be in the martensitic phase. Investigating the fracture surface
of the specimens in Jensen’s study, suggests that cracks
initiate and grow on the plane of maximum shear stress
and during crack propagation stage it orients to the plane of
maximum principal stress. These observations imply that
Nitinol, at least in the martensitic phase, is a shear failure-
mode material. Understanding the failure mechanism of the
material is necessary to employ an appropriate fatigue model
under multiaxial state of deformation as will be discussed in
the following sections.
Runciman et al. (2011) studied the torsional fatigue beha-
vior of superelastic Ni50.8Ti49.2 with Af ¼ 16 and 22 1C at test
temperatures of 25 and 37 1C, respectively. Tests were con-
tinued to failure or to 107 cycles as run-out. These results are
presented in Fig. 11(b), where the shear strain-life fatigue
results for the superelastic Nitinol under zero mean strain
can be approximated using a power-law relation. Predki et al.
(2006) conducted the comparison of the fatigue life of tubular
and solid round specimens under force-controlled conditions
to study the effects of specimen type on torsional fatigue
behavior of superelastic Nitinol alloys. Predki et al. observed
greater fatigue lives for solid specimens, when compared
with those for tubular specimens, which is in agreement with
the observations reported for the effects of cross-sectional
shape on the torsional fatigue of steels (Shamsaei and
Fatemi, 2009a, 2009b).
3.1.3. Multiaxial fatigue
A multiaxial state of deformation is very common in engi-
neering applications, and even under nominal uniaxial load-
ing situations, multiaxial loading may exist (Fatemi and
Shamsaei, 2011). The multiaxial stresses in critical elements
of components and structures can result from multi-
directional loading, stress concentrations, or residual stresses
(Shamsaei and McKelvey, 2014). Some studies have evaluated
the mechanical loading conditions of many biomedical pro-
ducts made of Nitinol and confirmed the general state of
deformation is multiaxial (Allie et al., 2004; Cheng et al., 2006;
Nikanorov et al., 2008). Fatemi and Shamsaei (2011) have
discussed several important factors that should be consid-
ered under multiaxial deformation. These include damage
mechanisms, which provide the basis for developing the
fatigue damage parameters, non-proportional cyclic harden-
ing/softening and constitutive behavior that may signifi-
cantly affect the multiaxial fatigue response, and multiaxial
damage parameters for fatigue life and design durability
estimation models. In addition to these important factors,
the effects of the multiaxial deformation path (i.e. in-phase
versus out-of-phase) on the phase transformation phenom-
enon should be considered for shape memory alloys such as
Nitinol.
Despite the importance of understanding the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol under multiaxial state of deformation,
there are only a few studies addressing the multiaxial fatigue
behavior of this material. Multiaxial fatigue behavior of
Nitinol alloys may be completely different from uniaxial,
due to the effect of deformation path (i.e. in-phase or out-
of-phase) on the metallurgical phase transformation phe-
nomenon. There is a need for further investigations to
understand and formulate models for fatigue behavior of
Nitinol under multiaxial state of deformation.
Jensen (2005) was among the few researchers who studied
the multiaxial fatigue of a martensitic Nitinol alloy. He
investigated the biaxial cyclic deformation and fatigue beha-
vior of Ni49.9Ti50.1 under force-controlled proportional (i.e. in-
phase) tension–torsion tests. The tests were conducted at
23 1C to specimen failure or run out to 105 cycles. Although
the metallurgical phase condition and the transformation
temperatures of the material were not indicated, the cyclic
stress–strain curves appear to follow martensitic Nitinol
behavior. In-phase, tension–torsion loads with combinations
of five, fully reversed, axial stress amplitudes (740, 560, 500,
250 and 125 MPa) with a fully reversed, shear stress ampli-
tude of 250 MPa were employed to characterize the in-phase
multiaxial, fatigue behavior of a martensitic alloy. Jensen
(2005) suggested a relation between equivalent stress and the
fatigue life of the martensitic Nitinol alloys as presented in
Eq. (8):
 
σ eq ¼ 85:766 ln Nf þ 1859:8 ð8Þ
where; σ eq is the von Mises equivalent stress amplitude
in MPa.
Jensen (2005) also reported the fatigue lives of in-phase
multiaxial loading for martensitic Nitinol alloys, where the
shear stress was dominant (i.e. for the combinations of 250
and 125 MPa axial stress and 250 MPa shear stress), to be
similar to those obtained under pure torsion loading. There-
fore, no significant effect from axial loading may result in the
presence of considerable torsional loads. Furthermore, biaxial
tension–torsion fatigue tests, in which tension was more
dominant, were found to be far more damaging and have
significant reduction in fatigue lives for this loading condition
(Jensen, 2005).
Mahtabi and Shamsaei (2015) recently analyzed the torsional
and in-phase multiaxial fatigue data generated by Jensen (2005)
for martensitic Nitinol. The martensitic Nitinol was found to be
a shear failure mode material. Therefore, they evaluated
various classical and critical plane multiaxial fatigue models,
such as von Mises, McDiarmid, and Findley to correlate tor-
sional and in-phase multiaxial fatigue data and reported
unsatisfactory results. They also proposed a Fatemi–Socie-type,
shear stress-based damage parameter, considering the coupling
effects of shear and normal stresses. The proposed model was
found to correlate torsional and in-phase multiaxial fatigue
data for martensitic Nitinol fairly well.
One of the common methods for multiaxial fatigue life
predictions of engineering materials is to use the von Mises
equivalent stress/strain to assimilate the multiaxial load
parameters to a single parameter and then calculate the
fatigue strength using the existing uniaxial fatigue data/
properties. Following this approach, Runciman et al. (2011)
conducted experiments on medical grade, superelastic Niti-
nol (i.e. Ni50.8Ti49.2) under torsional strain and compared the
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
results to the uniaxial tensile or bending test data to obtain a
relation for multiaxial fatigue behavior. They proposed an
equation that relates the alternating equivalent von Mises
strain, Δεeq =2, to the fatigue life as expressed by Eq. (9):
Δεeq    0:4
¼ 0:25 þ 49:6 Nf ð9Þ
2
Runciman et al. showed that Eq. (9) worked reasonably
well for strain ratios in the range  1rRε r0.6, this relation-
ship did not correlate with the experimental results for
greater strain ratios (greater mean strain levels). It should
be noted that Runciman et al. calculated the equivalent strain
amplitude using Eq. (10), which does not account for the
effects of the equivalent Poisson’s ratio:
rffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
4 loading. As the multiaxial deformation path may affect the
εeq ¼ ε2t þ ε2s ð10Þ
3 metallurgical phase transformation phenomenon, its effects
In order to consider such an effect, one may use the
equivalent von Mises strain equation expressed as:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
1
εeq ¼ ð1 þ νÞ2 ε2t þ 3ε2s ð11Þ
1þν
Runciman et al. proposed a modified Coffin–Manson equa-
tion for multiaxial fatigue of the superelastic Nitinol. Their
proposed approach relates the number of cycles to failure to
the equivalent alternating transformation strain, Δεtr =2. Their
model can be expressed as:
Δεtr
¼ 61:7 Nf 0:5 ð12Þ
2 suitable for structural materials, but it cannot predict accu-
where the εtr is the equivalent von Mises transformation
strain and Nf is the number of cycles to failure. The transfor-
mation strain is defined as the difference between total and
pure elastic strain. The modified Coffin–Manson relation
proposed by Runciman et al., however, seems to work well
for the torsional fatigue data; unfortunately, it does not
provide a good correlation with the axial data. Furthermore,
the accuracy of the model for multiaxial loading with both
axial and shear strains applied simultaneously to the same
specimen was not validated. Although the simplified method
proposed by Runciman et al., can be helpful as initial work for
the multiaxial fatigue of Nitinol, it does not address the
proportional and non-proportional deformation effects that
include a possible non-proportional cyclic hardening in
superelastic Nitinol.
In general, classical fatigue criteria, such as von Mises, do
not work well for non-proportional (i.e. out-of-phase) loading
and typically underestimate fatigue damage under such
multiaxial loadings (Fatemi and Shamsaei, 2011; Shamsaei
and Fatemi, 2009b). Furthermore, the accuracy of these
classical models to work even under multiaxial loading
blocks, consisting of only proportional cycles, has been
questioned recently (Fatemi and Shamsaei, 2011; Shamsaei
et al., 2011).
More observations on the multiaxial fatigue behavior of
Nitinol can be made regarding the failure mode of the
material. As mentioned previously for fatigue of Nitinol
under torsion, Nitinol appears to be a shear failure mode
governed material. It is known that cracks tend to initiate and
grow around preferred planes, so-called critical planes under
multiaxial deformations. A critical plane fatigue model, con-
sidering the physical nature of the failure in the material may
239
be appropriate for multiaxial fatigue analysis of Nitinol.
Fatemi–Socie critical plane model (Fatemi and Socie, 1988)
appears to be an appropriate fatigue model for shear failure
mode governed materials. In this model, the maximum shear
strain is the driving parameter for the crack and the max-
imum normal stress on the plane of maximum shear strain, if
it is tensile, opens the crack and accelerates crack growth.
The model is a physically based model that is capable of
considering the constitutive behavior of the material includ-
ing non-proportional cyclic hardening and the failure mode
of the material (Fatemi and Shamsaei, 2011; Fatemi and Socie,
1988; Park and Nelson, 2000).
Cyclic behavior of Nitinol is also highly dependent on the
material phase and its response to different multiaxial cyclic
should be taken into consideration in fatigue life estimations
for shape memory alloys. More comprehensive studies
regarding the multiaxial fatigue of Nitinol alloys that consider
the effects of multiaxial deformation paths are still required
to formulate more accurate multiaxial fatigue predictive
models.
3.1.4. Mean stress/strain effects on fatigue behavior
In previous sections, the fatigue behavior of Nitinol under
fully reversed loading was discussed. Miyazaki et al. (1986b)
indicated that zero mean stress fatigue analysis may be
rately the fatigue behavior of superelastic Nitinol alloys. In
many applications, Nitinol alloys may be subjected to a mean
strain or stress during the durability life of a component.
Nitinol stents, as an example, are subjected to at least two
types of deformations; a semi-constant tension from the
artery and a cyclic pulsatile deformation of the artery wall
caused by the changes in systolic–diastolic blood pressure
(there are, of course, duty cycle deformations that are body
location specific that are superimposed upon these and
depending on body location may be of greater significance).
For this reason, non-zero mean stress or strain tests (pulsatile
type loading) are used to obtain a better evaluation of the
fatigue behavior of Nitinol components in such applications
(Duerig et al., 1999; Pelton et al., 2008, 2003; Tolomeo et al.,
2000).
Mean stresses affect significantly the fatigue behavior of
Nitinol. Fatigue testing of Nitinol alloys under tensile mean
stresses results in a drastic reduction in the fatigue strength
in the linear elastic region, as long as the maximum stress is
not great enough to induce the martensitic phase (Moumni
et al., 2005). The S–N curves from identically treated dog-
bone-shape Nitinol specimens under tension-compression
demonstrate the reducing effects of tensile mean stresses
on the fatigue resistance of the superelastic Nitinol alloy as
shown in Fig. 12 (Moumni et al., 2005). As seen, the fatigue
lives under fully reversed stressing (Rσ ¼ 1) are significantly
greater than the fatigue lives under pulsating loading (Rσ ¼0).
Another study examining the effects of non-zero mean
stress on the fatigue life of Nitinol was performed by Tabanli
et al. (1999). They investigated the fatigue behavior of super-
elastic Nitinol tubes with Af between 3 and  6 1C at room
temperature ( 22 1C). The uniaxial tensile experiments were
240 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 12 – Mean stress effects on the fatigue of superelastic
Nitinol dogbone specimens (Moumni et al., 2005).
Fig. 13 – Stress-life fatigue data indicating the effects of
mean stress on the fatigue behavior of a superelastic Nitinol
(Tabanli et al., 1999).
performed in the strain-controlled (displacement-controlled)
condition at 20 Hz frequency in a non-controlled environment.
Different fatigue lives for various mean stress values were
observed at constant alternating stress amplitude as presented
in Fig. 13. Data from Tabanli et al. (1999) does not indicate a
specific relation between mean stress and the fatigue life for
superelastic Nitinol alloys. In their experiments, specimens E
and A failed in the grip; thus, the actual fatigue lives for these
two specimens were higher than the ones reported in Fig. 13.
The difference in fatigue life and mean stress level between
specimen E and other specimens are notable. The mean stress
in specimen E is much higher than other specimens. The
greater mean stress can cause stress-induced martensitic
phase in the material and consequently leads to drastically
greater fatigue strength as compared with its austenitic
counterpart. The contradictory results from Tabanli et al.’s
study to other studies such as Moumni et al. (2005) may be
attributed to the greater testing frequency in Tabanli et al.’s
experiment, which may induce latent heat in the specimen.
This latent heat can significantly affect the material properties
and result in different fatigue lives.
Effects of tensile mean strain on the fatigue of superelastic
Nitinol could be beneficial or detrimental, depending on the
mean strain level (Pelton et al., 2008). One common method to
compare the results for different combinations of mean strains
and strain amplitudes is to compare these combinations at a
certain run-out life (e.g. 106 or 107 cycles), so-called constant-life
diagram (Mitchell, 1996). In this method, experimental results
from different combinations of mean and alternating strain are
plotted and compared. Examples of this method for
Fig. 14 – Tensile and compressive mean strain effects on
fatigue behavior of the superelastic Nitinol (Elahinia, 2015).
representing mean strain effects on fatigue of Nitinol are the
studies by Tolomeo et al. (2000) for 106 cycles and Pelton et al.
(2003) for 107 cycles of run-out tests, as shown in Fig. 14. In this
plot, the vertical axis is the alternating strain, εa, and the
horizontal axis is the mean strain, εm. According to the
observations reported by Tolomeo et al. (2000), the tolerable
alternating strain for the superelastic Nitinol increases with
increasing mean strain up to a certain mean strain amplitude
(e.g. 3%). However, beyond 3% mean strain, the tolerable
alternating strain decreases as the mean strain increases with-
out failure of the specimen.
Analogous to the data from Tolomeo et al. (2000), the
observations by Pelton et al. (2003) confirms similar effects of
mean strain on the fatigue behavior of superelastic Nitinol
alloys as can be also seen in Fig. 14. The latter study includes
the compressive mean strains that are calculated from finite
element analysis of the stent-like components. Their findings
for superelastic Nitinol indicate that the bearable alternating
strain decreases as the mean strain increases up to 1–1.5%.
Above this mean strain, however, the alternating strain tends
to increase by an increase in the mean strain level. Both
experiments were performed at 37 1C using specimens with
Af ¼ 28 1C (Tolomeo et al., 2000) and Af ¼ 30 1C (Pelton et al.,
2003) meaning that all specimens were in the superelastic
austenitic phase. This behavior can be attributed to the
formation of stress-induced martensitic phase in Nitinol
under greater mean strain values (Pelton et al., 2003). The
findings of Pelton and co-workers and Tolomeo et al. on the
improved fatigue life with greater mean strains was also
confirmed by Morgan et al. (2004). They (Morgan et al., 2004)
reported greater fatigue lives for superelastic Nitinol speci-
mens with Af ¼ 12 1C by increasing mean strain level as
presented in Fig. 15. It can be seen in this figure that the
fatigue life improvement was more significant in the high-
cycle regime, when compared to the low-cycle fatigue regime.
Similar to the previously mentioned studies, the greater
fatigue lives may be the result of the formation of the
stress-induced martensitic phase in presence of greater mean
strains. Some researchers reported greater fatigue lives in
superelastic Nitinol for a combination of a low alternating
strain and a high mean strain (Duerig et al., 1999; Morgan
et al., 2004). Morgan et al. (2004) attributed these longer
fatigue lives to the increasing amount of stabilized
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 15 – Tensile mean strain effect on the strain-life fatigue
data of the superelastic Nitinol (Morgan et al., 2004).
Fig. 16 – Mean stress effects on the fatigue of martensitic
Nitinol (Kang et al., 2012).
martensitic Nitinol, which resulted from the non-zero mean
strains acting upon the material.
Mean stress and mean strain effects on the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol have been the subject of considerable
interest to other researchers as well. Tabanli et al. (2001) also
investigated the effects of mean strain on the fatigue beha-
vior of superelastic Nitinol. They observed a drastically
shorter fatigue life for superelastic Nitinol specimens on the
stress plateau region as the mean strain level increased. They
considered the sharp edges between different phases, i.e.
austenite and deformed martensite, of material (Shaw and
Kyriakides, 1997) as a possible cause for shorter fatigue life in
presence of mean strains.
The classical mean stress/strain correction methods such
as Goodman or Soderberg are certainly not applicable for
superelastic Nitinol alloys (Kugler et al., 2000; Morgan et al.,
2004; Tabanli et al., 2001, 1999). This is due mainly to the fact
that the stress–strain relations of these alloys for loading and
unloading directions are not similar (Robertson et al., 2012).
In addition, the fatigue resistance of the Nitinol alloys may
not always decrease as the mean stress or strain increases.
Kang et al. (2012) studied the influence of mean stresses
on the fatigue behavior of martensitic Nitinol alloys. Similar
to other metals, their observations show that compressive
mean strain improves the fatigue resistance of martensitic
Nitinol alloys as shown in Fig. 16. Results from Kang et al.
(2012) are also in agreement with the findings of Moumni
241
Fig. 17 – Effect of mean shear strain on the torsional fatigue
of superelastic Nitinol alloys (Runciman et al., 2011).
et al. (2005), where they related the beneficial effects of the
compressive mean stresses to the closure of microcracks.
Tensile mean stresses seem to be detrimental to the fatigue
resistance of martensitic Nitinol alloys, the more familiar and
expected response, as can be seen in Fig. 16 (Kang et al., 2012).
However, there are insufficient data in the literature to
generalize the effects of stress ratio on the stress-life fatigue
behavior of Nitinol alloys.
The effects of mean shear strain on the fatigue behavior of
the superelastic Nitinol have been experimentally investi-
gated by Runciman et al. (2011) for multiple shear strain
ratios of Rγ ¼γmin/γmax ¼  1, 0, 0.2, and 0.6 under strain-
controlled torsional tests. Comparing the results for different
mean shear strain ratios as presented in Fig. 17, the effect of
mean shear strain on the fatigue resistance of superelastic
Nitinol is not necessarily detrimental. Therefore, the pre-
sence of mean shear strains may enhance the fatigue life of
Nitinol alloys, which is similar to the effects of tensile mean
strains. This behavior can be seen clearly in Fig. 17, where the
specimens under pulsatile loading (Rγ ¼ 0) endure greater
fatigue lives than the specimens under fully reversed cyclic
loading (Rγ ¼ 1) with the same alternating shear strains.
However, making reliable conclusions on the effects of shear
mean strains on the torsional fatigue behavior of Nitinol
alloys requires more comprehensive experimental and ana-
lytical works to evaluate the possibility of formation of stress-
induced martensite under different shear load ratios.
3.1.5. Phase contribution to fatigue behavior
The dependence of the fatigue behavior to different phases of
Nitinol was addressed first by Melton and Mercier (1979a). A
stress-life plot for three different Nitinol alloys for specimens
with different Af temperatures is shown in Fig. 4. The first set
of specimens with Af ¼ 10 1C (the austenite finish temperature
is calculated by the approximation; Af ¼Msþ40 1C Robertson
et al., 2012) are in the austenitic phase at room temperature
and exhibit superelastic behavior. The second set with
Af ¼110 1C are martensitic at the room temperature. Fig. 4
indicates clearly that the superelastic specimens have sig-
nificantly greater fatigue limits in stress-life fatigue, when
compared with the thermally martensitic specimens. Similar
results for stress-life fatigue of Nitinol were also reported by
Kim and Miyazaki (1997) as illustrated in Fig. 6. This greater
242 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
stress-based fatigue life for the superelastic Nitinol can be
attributed to the greater stress carrying capacity of the
superelastic phase, when compared with the thermally mar-
tensitic Nitinol, as can be seen in Fig. 3.
Similarly, the effects of the microstructural phase to the
fatigue behavior of the Nitinol alloys in the strain-based
approach can be illustrated by strain-controlled fatigue test-
ing of identical samples at various test temperatures. Accord-
ing to the separate strain-controlled experiments conducted
by Miyazaki et al. (1999) and Kim (2002), the strain-based
fatigue lives of the thermally martensitic Nitinol specimens
are significantly greater than those of superelastic Nitinol
specimens, as shown in Fig. 7. Strain-life fatigue data from a
rotating-bending study of Kim and Miyazaki (1997) also
confirmed greater fatigue lives for thermally martensitic
Nitinol specimens.
The contradictory results in the literature on the fatigue
resistance of different phases of Nitinol alloys (i.e. thermally
martensitic and superelastic) may be attributed to the fatigue
life approach employed to analyze the data. In summary, the
superelastic Nitinol exhibits greater fatigue resistance in the
stress-based fatigue approach, whereas martensitic Nitinol
alloys typically have greater lives in the strain-based
approach. As stated previously, the greater fatigue lives
observed in stress-based fatigue analysis of Nitinol alloys
can be attributed to the greater stress carrying capacity of
superelastic Nitinol alloys, when compared to martensitic
ones, as can be seen in Fig. 3.
A complex phase transformation may take place in super-
elastic Nitinol components in presence of mean strains,
which can accelerate or decelerate the fatigue crack initiation
process. The effects of metallurgical phase on the fatigue
behavior of the superelastic Nitinol in the presence of mean
strains are reasonably well demonstrated in an article by
Pelton (2011). As reported, an increase in mean strain in the
austenite phase that is up to the linear elastic limit (i.e. region
A in Fig. 10) is detrimental to the fatigue strength. However,
an increase in tensile mean strain from the linear elastic
“proportional limit” to the strain corresponding to the start of
upper superelastic plateau (i.e. region B in Fig. 10) appears
beneficial to the fatigue resistance of superelastic Nitinol
alloys as long as the total applied strain remains within the
superelastic (i.e. recoverable) region (i.e. regions C and linear
section of region D in Fig. 10). The formation of stress-
induced martensite in the superelastic plateau region is
responsible for the improved fatigue strength in superelastic
Nitinol alloys (Pelton, 2011). Finally, an increase in tensile
mean strain level in the deformed martensite phase (i.e.
beyond the linear section of region D in Fig. 10), which is
beyond the superelastic plateau region, results in a reduced
fatigue resistance.
Another consequence of stress-induced phase transfor-
mation in superelastic Nitinol is that the modulus of elasti-
city varies as a function of the volume fraction of each phase
in the material (Robertson et al., 2012). In Fig. 10, the modulus
of elasticity of the fully austenitic material is denoted as EA.
As the strain amplitude increases, the volume fraction of the
martensite increases until it reaches a fully martensitic
region, where the modulus of elasticity becomes EM. For
strains between these two limits (i.e. martensite start strain,
εAM
S , and martensite finish strain, εF ) the material shows a
AM
modulus of elasticity between EA and EM, depending on the
volume fraction of the martensitic phase. This change of the
modulus of elasticity in loading and unloading at different
strain levels significantly influences the material cyclic
response in the presence of mean strains.
The effects of microstructural phase on the crack growth
of Nitinol alloys have been also addressed in some studies
(Gollerthan et al., 2009; McKelvey and Ritchie, 2001). For
superelastic Nitinol, as long as the crack nucleation is
inhibited, the stress-induced martensite (i.e. region C in
Fig. 10) is the preferred condition, which exhibits greater
crack propagation resistance as compared to the fully auste-
nitic phase (i.e. region A in Fig. 10). Thermally martensitic
Nitinol alloys usually show drastically superior resistance to
fatigue crack propagation than the superelastic austenitic
alloys (Holtz et al., 1999; McKelvey and Ritchie, 2001).
3.2. Thermo-mechanical fatigue
Nitinol, as well as other shape memory alloys, are used as an
actuator in many applications at which they are under
alternating stresses and strains resulting from thermal
cycling. Therefore, the material is prone to thermo-
mechanical fatigue under constant or variable strains/stres-
ses. There are a limited number of studies in the literature
concerning the thermo-mechanical fatigue of shape memory
alloys (Bertacchini et al., 2009; Bigeon and Morin, 1996;
Lagoudas et al., 2009, 2000) and even fewer studies addressing
the thermo-mechanical fatigue behavior of Nitinol (Fumagalli
et al., 2009; Mertmann and Vergani, 2008; Scirè Mammano
and Dragoni, 2014). Although many researchers have referred
to the failure under coupled thermal and mechanical loads as
functional fatigue, this type of failure is, in fact, thermo-
mechanical fatigue.
Scirè Mammano and Dragoni (2014) recently studied the
thermo-mechanical failure of the Nitinol alloys under various
types of loading; constant stress, constant strain, and con-
stant stress with limited strain. In their analysis, they have
plotted the fatigue life of the specimen (in term of number of
cycles to failure) versus a single test parameter such as stress
or strain, depending on the test constraint. An example plot
of the results from their study is shown in Fig. 18(a) for
constant stress test and constant stress test with 4% limited
strain. The amplitude of the strain of about 4% in both sets of
test results presented in Fig. 18(a) indicates the similar
temperature change in both test conditions. In Fig. 18(b), we
have plotted the same sets of data against a Smith–Watson–
Topper (SWT)-type parameter that includes both stress and
strain effects, σεmax. SWT-type parameter was selected
because the stress and strain in these tests are almost
uncoupled parameters; therefore, the fatigue damage para-
meter should be able to capture the effects of both para-
meters. The original Smith–Watson–Topper parameter
(Smith et al., 1970) was originally defined as σmaxεa and
considers the synergistic effects of strain amplitude for mean
stress effects (Smith et al., 1970). It was used also for multi-
axial fatigue analysis (Socie, 1987) as well as load history
effects (Colin and Fatemi, 2010). As can be seen from Fig. 18
(b), using a fatigue parameter considering the synergistic
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Nf
Nf
Fig. 18 – Thermo-mechanical fatigue of Nitinol (a) single-
parameter plot (Scirè Mammano and Dragoni, 2014) (b) SWT-
type parameter plot for the same set of the data.
effects of stress and strain leads to almost identical fit for
both data sets.
The change in transformation temperatures of Nitinol
under oscillating temperatures with or without external
mechanical deformation is sometimes called thermal fatigue.
Although this type of the change in the material property
does not necessarily lead to actual failure and may not be
considered as fatigue failure, a brief discussion on this
property change in the material is presented in this section.
To date, several studies on thermal fatigue of Nitinol have
been conducted and reported generally a reduction in trans-
formation temperatures. Miyazaki et al. (Miyazaki et al.,
1986a) attributed the decrease in the transformation tem-
peratures of Nitinol alloys during thermal cycling to the
presence of large amount of defects, such as dislocations,
which resist the transition of the parent austenite phase to
the martensitic phase. He et al. (2006) studied the effects of
thermal cycling on the transformation temperatures of
Ni43Ti50Cu7 alloy and found that Ms, Mf and Af tend to
decrease with increasing thermal cycles, while As is prone
to an increase. The change in transformation temperatures
reaches a stable state after  10 cycles of thermal cycling;
thus, more stable Nitinol alloys can be obtained by applying
cyclic thermal straining prior to the actual application of the
material.
Experiments conducted by Urbina et al. (2009) also
revealed a slight reduction in austenite finish temperature,
Af, of a Nitinol alloy under thermal cycling. The other
243
transformation temperatures of this Nitinol, such as Ms,
and Mf, remained essentially unchanged. Several thermo-
mechanical cyclic heating tests on Nitinol were also con-
ducted recently by Casati et al. (2011) and significant changes
in the transformation temperatures under thermo-
mechanical (i.e. thermal cycling in presence of external
mechanical forces) cycling were observed. Similar results
were reported in a study by Pelton (2011), where several
cycles of heating and cooling were applied to Ni50.5Ti49.5
specimens. Benafan et al. (2014) observed a significant change
in the texture of the martensitic Nitinol under thermal
cycling. However, the change for austenitic Nitinol did not
seem to be significant.
Although different effects of thermal cycles on transfor-
mation temperatures of Nitinol alloys have been observed, a
stable state of shape memory properties has been reported
after few cycles of thermal loading in almost all studies.
Therefore, a more stable structure and behavior may be
achieved by prior thermal cycling of Nitinol alloys. Micro-
structural rearrangements under thermal cycles may be
responsible for the initial transient behaviors observed for
this material. Nevertheless, more comprehensive experimen-
tal studies are still required to better understand the thermal
fatigue of Nitinol alloys.
3.3. Functional fatigue
Eggeler et al. (2004) first proposed the term “functional
fatigue” indicating a decrease in the functionality of the
shape memory alloys during cyclic deformations. The func-
tional property can be the dissipated energy in a pseudo-
elastic damping application or maximum recoverable strain
of the material. Prior to Eggeler et al., other researchers also
studied the functional behavior and degradation of the
Nitinol alloys under cyclic deformation (Melton and Mercier,
1979a; Miyazaki et al., 1986b; Sawaguchi et al., 2003); however,
they did not refer to it as “functional fatigue”. Although some
of the studies discussed in this section have not referred
directly to the change in material properties as “functional
fatigue”, we have categorized them by using the definition
provided by Eggeler et al. (2004).
Miyazaki et al. (1986b) were one of the first to investigate
the effects of cyclic deformations on the functionality of
superelastic Nitinol alloys. They conducted an experimental
study on Ni50.6Ti49.4, with different heat treatments from
water-quenching to gradual cooling of annealed materials.
Transformation temperatures were measured using the elec-
trical resistance of the wires. Results of their study show a
reduction in the stress level corresponding to the starting
point of the stress-induced martensite region (i.e. martensite
start stress, σ AM
S , in Fig. 10) by increasing number of cycles, as
illustrated in Fig. 19(a). Such changes in the stress–strain
curve of superelastic Nitinol alloys were also reported in
other studies (Gall et al., 1998; Nayan et al., 2008). Moreover,
as Miyazaki et al. (1986b) stated, an increase in residual (i.e.
unrecoverable) strain and a reduction in hysteresis loop area
(as an indicator of the dissipated energy) are expected by an
increase in number of cycles. These changes, which were
described schematically in Fig. 19(a) and also in Fig. 19(b),
were also confirmed by Gall et al. (1998) and Nayan et al.
244 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 19 – Schematic representation of the change in the
stress–strain curve of superelastic Nitinol (a) cyclic stress–
strain curve for a superelastic and (b) cyclic change in
starting point of the stress-induced martensitic phase, σ AMS
(Miyazaki et al., 1986b).
(2008). Miyazaki et al. (1986b) attributed the increase in the
residual strain to the slip formation under cyclic loading. The
rate of change in functional parameters of superelastic
Nitinol specimens decreases by an increase in number of
cycles that results in a more stable state of functionality
(Miyazaki et al., 1986b). Therefore, a more stable superelastic
Nitinol can be expected by prior cyclic training of this shape
memory alloy (Miyazaki et al., 1986b).
Several researches have addressed the degradation of the
functional properties of superelastic Nitinol alloys in terms of
the ability of the material to absorb energy (i.e. the area of the
hysteresis loop) or the evolution of unrecoverable/residual
strain that affects the maximum recoverable strain (Eggeler
et al., 2004; Scirè Mammano and Dragoni, 2014). All these
studies unanimously reported two common behaviors in the
functional properties of the superelastic Nitinol. First, the
hysteresis loop of the material becomes narrower as the
number of cycles of loading increases as shown in Fig. 19(a).
Second, the stress–strain response of the material stabilizes
after several cycles of loading, i.e. 100–150 cycles (Eggeler
et al., 2004; Frotscher et al., 2011; Gall et al., 1998; Maletta
et al., 2014; Mao et al., 2006; Miyazaki et al., 1986b; Moumni
et al., 2005; Nemat-Nasser and Guo, 2006; Sehitoglu et al.,
2001). Comparable changes for thermally martensitic Nitinol
(Kang et al., 2012; Melton and Mercier, 1979a) and mixed-
mode Nitinol (Nayan et al., 2008) were also reported in the
literature.
Similar to uniaxial loading, the hysteresis loop of both
superelastic and thermally martensitic is subjected to change
in the first few cycles of shear loading (Jensen, 2005; Wang
et al., 2010). The hysteresis loops for the superelastic (Wang
et al., 2010) and thermally martensitic Nitinol (Jensen, 2005)
under force-controlled shear deformation becomes narrower
as the number of cycles increases. This indicates a reduction
in the ability of the superelastic as well as thermally mar-
tensitic Nitinol in absorbing and dissipating energy under
cyclic shear loading.
The functional fatigue under multiaxial cyclic loading is
also a possible failure mode for components made of Nitinol
(Song et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2012). Similar to uniaxial
testing, the capability of the superelastic Nitinol to dissipate
energy decreases for the first few cycles and then reaches a
stable state under multiaxial state of deformation.
Despite the fact that there are some studies in the
literature concerning the “functional fatigue” of Nitinol, this
term is not accepted widely in the fatigue research commu-
nity. This is because all materials are cyclically unstable and
may cyclically soften, harden or remain stable under strain-
controlled fatigue conditions. These changes in the mechan-
ical properties under cyclic deformations are affected by the
material’s microstructure, where dislocations are constantly
in rearrangement. Since the fatigue process is degradation of
the material under cyclic deformations, and by some
mechanism such as dislocation motion, detwin/twin, etc.,
the “bulk” response may not be altered significantly until
there is a crack initiated and propagated. All materials
undergo cyclic readjustment in the first few cycles of their
total fatigue life, at a given strain amplitude. This phenom-
enon is very common and does not necessarily cause a failure
in the material. The stability for Nitinol is achieved in the first
100 cycles as reported by many studies (Eggeler et al., 2004;
Miyazaki et al., 1986b). Since the material quickly reaches its
stable-state and there is no actual failure in the material, not
many researches have considered functional fatigue as a real
type of failure for Nitinol alloys.
4. Failure mechanism and microstructural
effects
Microstructural properties such as grain size, lattice defects,
and inclusions are important factors that affect the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol (Eggeler et al., 2004). Wilkes and Liaw
(2000) reported significant effects of grain size on the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol alloys. The grain size influences primarily
the stress concentration on the grain boundaries that may
induce local martensitic phases in the superelastic Nitinol.
Stress concentrations at the grain boundaries, eventually lead
to permanent deformation and crack initiation. The localized
strains along the slip bands seem to be reduced for materials
with finer grain size. Moreover, the micro cracks tend to
initiate from the locations with more stress concentrations
such as inclusions, laminations, and voids/porosities under
cyclic loadings or thermal cycling. More recently, several
studies have focused on the microstructural aspects of
fatigue of Nitinol to find a relationship between microstruc-
tural properties and fatigue resistance (Coda, 2014; Launey
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
et al., 2014). Launey et al. (2014) investigated the effect of
impurities by comparing the fatigue behavior of high purity
grade of Nitinol with those of standard Nitinol. They observed
five times greater fatigue strength for the high purity grade
Nitinol compared with the standard Nitinol in terms of strain
amplitude and for a run-out life of 107 cycles. This can be
attributed to the presence of impurities such as carbide (TiC)
or oxide inclusions that normally serve as locations for
metallurgical-type stress concentration and crack nucleation
(Launey et al., 2014). Such observations generates a need for
developing microstructure-sensitive fatigue models for Niti-
nol alloys.
Microstructural features of failed superelastic Nitinol
micro stents were studied by Frotscher et al. (2009). They
found surface defects, such as TiC particles, pores, laser
burrs, and surface cracks, as the main sites for crack initia-
tion. They also indicated that the fatigue life of strut ele-
ments in medical stents was controlled by the crack
nucleation stage and there was no distinct crack growth
stage observed on the fracture surface. In subsequent
research, Frotscher et al. (2011) observed an increase in
dislocation density in some grains with an increase in the
number of cycles. This localized dislocation density may form
stress-induced martensite in some areas within the material.
They also reported crack nucleation at a TiC particle under
cyclic loading. Analogous to the findings of Frotscher et al.
(2011), Patel (2007) considered the impurities as the main
source of crack initiation and introduced the particle mor-
phology as a controlling parameter on the microcrack propa-
gation behavior of the superelastic Nitinol. Suggestions are
made in the literature to correlate the fatigue limit of Nitinol
with the size of the extreme inclusions in the material
(Urbano et al., 2013). The material with a larger inclusion size
tends to have a lower fatigue limit as anticipated from a
generalized local strain-based fatigue notch analysis of such
micro-discontinuities (Mitchell, 1979, 1977).
Delville et al. (2011) indicated that the finer microstruc-
tures for Nitinol wires result in greater resistance to disloca-
tion slip, which is typical in Nitinol alloys with larger grain
size. They defined a grain diameter less than 100 nm as a fine
grain and that with 200 nm of diameter or larger as a coarse
grain. They also attributed the cumulative plastic strain and
functional fatigue to the dislocation slip phenomenon under
cyclic deformations. Mao et al. (2006) also related the func-
tional fatigue of superelastic Nitinol, in the form of reduction
in modulus of elasticity, to the grain orientation and the
stabilization of martensitic twins in the material as well as
the formation of defects and dislocations through cyclic
loading. They reported the reduction in the stress plateau to
be dependent on the grain reorientation.
Nayan et al. (2008) reported that progressive accumulation
of stress-induced martensite in the superelastic Nitinol alloy
to be a cause of the fatigue failure. Zurbitu et al. (2010)
suggested that the accumulation of the dislocation density
is highly dependent on the loading rate. Their conclusion
was based on the comparison of the reduction in the critical
stress for inducing martensitic phase under impact and cyclic
fatigue loads. Finally, Kollerov et al. (2013) suggested that
the low-cycle fatigue of superelastic Nitinol alloys can be
increased by microstructural enhancement such as
245
decreasing impurities or providing nano-size Ni-rich particle
precipitation. They also reported an improved fatigue resis-
tance of Nitinol alloys by increasing dislocation density.
5. Treatment and processing effects
One of the key parameters that can influence greatly the
fatigue resistance of shape memory alloys is the final treat-
ment of the material. Based on Transmission Electron Micro-
scopy (TEM) observations, Pelton (2011) concluded
“processing plays a key role in the fatigue behavior of
Nitinol”. In another study, Condorelli et al. (2010) showed
the thermal treatment to have beneficial effects on fatigue
resistance of Nitinol components.
Several different thermal and/or mechanical methods are
proposed in the literature to construct a more stable Nitinol
by using different treatment techniques. The combination of
cold work and aging treatments may lead to an optimized
state of microstructure that results in a more stable shape
memory alloy under cyclic deformations (Duerig et al., 1999;
Miyazaki, 1990; Miyazaki et al., 1986b). Combinations of cold
work and aging treatments result in a minimized amount of
unresolved strain; therefore, it is a preferred process as
compared to the combination of annealing and aging
treatment.
For annealed specimens, Pelton (2011) compared the total
fatigue lives under uniaxial strain-controlled with 1.5% mean
strain and 0.25% strain amplitude at room temperature
(T¼ 22 1C). He demonstrated an enhanced fatigue resistance
by increasing annealing time and temperature for Nitinol
alloys with Af ¼  15 1C (i.e. austenitic phase in room
temperature).
6. Other parameters
In addition to the influential parameters that previously
discussed, other parameters, such as test temperature, sur-
face finish, specimen geometry, and cyclic frequency (rota-
tional speed in rotating-bending test), may also influence the
fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys. Effects of these parameters
on the fatigue behavior of Nitinol have been investigated in
the literature (Norwich and Fasching, 2009; Reinoehl et al.,
2000; Sawaguchi et al., 2003). One of the parameters that
greatly affects the fatigue resistance of Nitinol components is
the test temperature (Miyazaki et al., 1999, 1988; Pelton et al.,
2013). Some studies on the effects of test temperature on
fatigue behavior of Nitinol presented in Figs. 7 and 8 have
been discussed in the previous sections. As can be seen in
Fig. 7, the effect of test temperature is more significant for the
test temperatures below the austenite finish temperature, Af,
where the material is not in the superelastic phase (Miyazaki
et al., 1999).
These data from Miyazaki et al. (1999) on the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol alloys under strain-controlled test condi-
tion, presented in Fig. 7(a), indicates a decrease in the fatigue
life as the test temperature increases. Similar results were
obtained in a more recent study by Pelton et al. (2013) for
superelastic Nitinol. For temperatures above the austenite
246 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 20 – Effects of test temperature on the tolerable strain
amplitude of superelastic Nitinol alloy at 107 cycles.
ΔT ¼ T Af, where T is test temperature and Af is the
austenite finish temperature (Pelton et al., 2013).
finish temperature, and in strain-based fatigue analysis, the
greater temperature may result in lower fatigue limits (Pelton
et al., 2013). The difference between the test temperature and
the austenite finish temperature of the Nitinol has been
reported to be a more important factor than the absolute
test temperature (Pelton et al., 2004). Pelton et al. (2013)
investigated the effect of relative test temperatures, ΔT,
which is the difference between test temperature and the
austenite finish temperature, of medical grade Nitinol
(Ni50.8Ti49.2) for a 107 cycles run-out. Their results, shown in
Fig. 20, indicate an increase in fatigue limit for 107 cycles
when the test temperature is closer to Af but a decrease in
fatigue limit, when the test temperature is increased above
the austenite finish temperature. However, no effects of test
temperature on fatigue resistance of Nitinol can be observed
for relative test temperatures lower than 40 1C, which is
approximately equal to the martensite start temperature, Ms.
A better understanding of effects of test temperature on
fatigue resistance of Nitinol in mixed-mode and martensitic
metallurgical phases still requires conducting more compre-
hensive investigations.
Fatigue cracks typically start from impurities on the sur-
face or close to the surface in metallic materials; therefore,
surface condition may affect significantly the crack initiation
life. Generally, Nitinol products are available in various sur-
face finishes such as eletropolished, mechanically polished,
etched, dark and black oxide. Pelton et al. (2013) have
summarized the results from different types of surface finish
(i.e. black oxide and bright/mechanically polished surface) for
a similar composition and treatment of Nitinol as shown in
Fig. 21. The heat treated wires have an approximately a
300 nm thick layer of oxide, so called black oxide. A bright
surface wire is mechanically polished after drawing (Pelton
et al., 2013). Mechanical polishing results in removing the
black oxide surface as well as drawing marks, and therefore,
provides a smoother surface finish. As seen in Fig. 21, the
effect of the surface finish is more significant in the high-
cycle fatigue than low-cycle fatigue regime. The bright sur-
face (mechanically polished) specimens show greater fatigue
strength in the high-cycle fatigue regime as compared to
specimens with black surface finish. Beneficial effects of finer
surface finishing techniques such as electropolishing and
Fig. 21 – Effects of surface finish quality on the fatigue
behavior of the superelastic Nitinol (Pelton et al., 2013).
etching are confirmed in other studies as well (Patel and
Gordon, 2006; Condorelli et al., 2010).
Introducing additive materials, such as Cu or TiC to typical
binary Nitinol alloys may not significantly affect the fatigue
behavior of these alloys (Miyazaki et al., 1999; Vaidyanathan
et al., 2000). Vaidyanathan et al. (2000) studied the effects of
TiC on the fatigue crack growth properties of Nitinol by using
two different contents of TiC as the reinforcement; 10% and
20%. Although the uniaxial stress–strain behaviors of the
specimens were quite different, Vaidyanathan and co-
workers concluded that the overall crack propagation beha-
vior of the reinforced shape memory alloys were similar to
the original alloy and there was no major change correspond-
ing to the amount of TiC. However, a slight reduction in the
crack initiation of Nitinol was noted by adding 10% Cu to the
composition of this alloy (Miyazaki et al., 1999).
Takeda et al. (2013) implanted nitrogen ions into
Ni50.85Ti49.15 wires and investigated its effect on different
functional parameters. They found that the austenite finish
temperature, Af, increases and the upper plateau stress
decreases by increasing the nitrogen ion content and no
further superelastic behavior of the material was observed.
In strain-based fatigue analysis, higher content of nitrogen
ions leads to longer fatigue lives in high-cycle regime,
whereas no significant effect was observed in low-cycle
fatigue regime (i.e. εa44%). Longer fatigue lives in high-cycle
regime can be a result of the increased Af due to the presence
of nitrogen ions.. However, these conclusions may not be
valid in the stress-based fatigue analysis, where the stress
response of the material significantly drops by adding the
nitrogen ion content.
Since most of the experiments are performed on wire
specimens, the effects of the wire diameter on the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol alloys are also investigated in several
studies (Norwich and Fasching, 2009; Pruett et al., 1997;
Sawaguchi et al., 2003). Sawaguchi et al. (2003) studied the
effects of the wire diameter on the fatigue behavior of the
superelastic Nitinol alloys and found slightly lower fatigue
lives for larger wire diameters. Norwich and Fasching (2009)
also reported the effects of Nitinol wire diameter on the
fatigue behavior as presented in Fig. 22. As can be seen from
this figure, greater fatigue strengths resulted from smaller
diameter wires of superelastic Nitinol alloys. They also
proposed a power-law equation to illustrate the low-cycle
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 22 – Effects of wire diameter on the fatigue behavior of
the superelastic Nitinol (Norwich and Fasching, 2009).
fatigue behavior of dentistry instruments made of Nitinol.
Additional results are required to generalize the effects of
specimen size on the fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys.
However, lower fatigue lives for larger specimens may be
expected because more impurities typically exist in larger
cross-sectional areas. This important factor should be con-
sidered and accounted for when a larger instrument is
designed based on the fatigue data from Nitinol wires.
Another important parameter affecting the fatigue beha-
vior of Nitinol alloys is the rotational speed (i.e. frequency) of
the rotating-bending test. This parameter is considered
mainly for the endodontic files in the literature (Gabel et al.,
1999; Gambarini, 2001; MuKhlif and Al-Azzawi, 2014). Results
from a study by Gabel et al. (1999) indicate a significant
increase in failure probability (  4  ) by increasing the rota-
tional speed by a factor of two. Considerable reductions in
strain-based fatigue lives of Nitinol specimens that were
tested in un-controlled air environment, with an increased
test frequency were reported (Eggeler et al., 2004; Tobushi
et al., 1997). However, no such differences in fatigue lives
were observed for specimens under controlled environments,
i.e. maintaining constant temperatures using a water bath
(Tobushi et al., 1997). These observations suggest that
frequency-induced hysteresis heating is responsible for
shorter fatigue lives of Nitinol in higher frequencies. As
stated previously, the relative test temperature may greatly
affect the fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys.
Zurbitu et al. (2010) investigated the effects of very high
strain rates (i.e. impact) on fatigue behavior of superelastic
Nitinol alloys. They found the critical stress for inducing the
martensitic phase (i.e. stress plateau) reduced with cyclic
impact forces. They also reported more reduction in the
critical stress with increasing strain rates. Additionally, fati-
gue resistance of the rotary instruments after clinical usage
has been investigated in a study of Nitinol by Bahia and
Buono (2005). Their results indicate that the fatigue resistance
of such rotary instrument decreased by previous usage therby
implying that fatigue damage of Nitinol is progressive and
irreversible in nature (Bahia and Buono, 2005).
7. Future works and challenges
In most biomedical applications of Nitinol alloys, such as
endovascular stents, abdominal aortic devices, etc., the duty
247
cycle at body specific locations are displacement or strain-
based cyclic deformations histories. Thus, the emphasis to
date in the fatigue analysis of Nitinol has been on strain (i.e.
displacement)-controlled testing and the strain-life approach.
There is also a need for a more thorough understanding of
the stress-life fatigue behavior of Nitinol as its application is
extended to bio-implants and other fields of engineering that
may require a force carrying tolerance.
In order to obtain stress-life fatigue data, different test
techniques can be employed. In other words, force (stress)-
controlled tests can be conducted using a classical rotating
beam machine or a closed-loop uniaxial fatigue test setup,
where both methods require dogbone specimens. In rotating
beam testing technique, the specimen can be under a four-
point bending moment at the critical section and a motor
rotates the specimen about its longitudinal axis at a desired
frequency. Similar to the rotating-bending test, in rotating
beam test the outer layer of the material experiences the
maximum stress/strain. Therefore, the surface finish is a very
important factor, governing the fatigue behavior in these
tests. However, unlike the rotary-bending test that is a
strain-controlled test setup, the rotating beam fatigue test is
a force (i.e. stress)-controlled test setup. Due to the distribu-
tion of the stress and consequently significant contribution of
the surface quality to the fatigue life in rotating beam
technique, this method may not capture the effects of sub-
surface impurities and other microstructural aspects within
the material. In this regard, uniaxial fatigue testing by a
closed-loop machine may be more appropriate.
In contrast to rotating beam testing, the stress distribution
is uniform over the cross section of the specimen in closed-
loop uniaxial fatigue machines. Therefore, the effects of
subsurface impurities and microstructural features will be
accounted for in fatigue behavior assessment in such an
experiment. However, more challenges may be involved with
fatigue testing of Nitinol alloys using uniaxial fatigue
machines. For instance, test frequency is an important factor
in uniaxial fatigue testing of larger samples due to the heat
generated during straining and un-straining (Lim and
McDowell, 1999). Greater test frequencies may cause hyster-
esis heat generation in the specimen that may significantly
influence the mechanical behavior of the material leading to
altered fatigue behavior. Thus, careful attention should be
taken to test frequency in uniaxial fatigue testing of dogbone
specimens to maintain a constant temperature in the mate-
rial and avoid undesired effects of self-heating.
Appropriate gripping of the sample is another challenge
since slip in the grips was observed in (McNaney et al., 2003)
due to the stress-induced phase transformation in Nitinol.
Furthermore, machining Nitinol rods to make dogbone fati-
gue specimens also requires careful attention since the
material is a hard, intermetallic compound and its mechan-
ical properties are highly sensitive to processing (Wu et al.,
1999). Thus, coolant must be used generously while machin-
ing Nitinol specimens.
In order to have a set of comparable test results, all the
experiments should be conducted in similar test conditions. In
other words, the test temperature and the difference between
the test temperature and the austenite finish temperature, Af,
should be held constant (Pelton et al., 2013). Unlike the wire
248 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
specimens in the rotating-bending fatigue test, performing
uniaxial strain-controlled fatigue tests in a controlled environ-
ment, such as a constant temperature bath, may not be easy.
As with most engineering alloys, the fatigue of Nitinol is
highly dependent on the microstructural aspects of the
material, such as impurities, inclusion, voids, grain size,
orientation, etc. More comprehensive research is indeed
essential to obtain the effects of such microstructural fea-
tures on the fatigue behavior. Understanding the effects of
microstructural impurities on fatigue behavior of Nitinol will
help the development of microstructure-sensitive fatigue
models for these alloys. A microstructure-sensitive fatigue
model can be also used to estimate the scatter in fatigue data
of Nitinol alloys at a certain strain/stress amplitude. In order
to validate/calibrate a comprehensive microstructure-
sensitive fatigue model, an extensive amount of experimen-
tal and computational research is needed, involving Nitinol
specimens with different levels of impurities, to understand
the synergistic effects of multiple microstructural features.
Due to the dependency of the fatigue behavior of super-
elastic Nitinol alloys to the stress-induced phase transforma-
tion phenomenon, the classical fatigue theories for mean
stress/strain corrections, such as Goodman relationship, should
not be used. Currently, there is no mean stress/strain correction
model for Nitinol alloys in the open literature. Additionally,
there is a lack of comprehensive mean stress/strain data to
understand the effects of mean stress/strain in the different
metallurgical phases of Nitinol. Thus, more experimental data
including various combinations of alternating and mean stres-
ses/strains should be generated to better understand the effects
of mean stress/strain on fatigue behavior of these alloys. It is
worth mentioning that developing a mean strain/stress correc-
tion model for Nitinol is important since the material exhibits a
pronounced asymmetry in tensile and compressive stress/
strain response. As mentioned earlier, due to the tension-
compression asymmetry in deformation, there would be either
a compressive mean stress (in strain-controlled fatigue tests) or
a tensile mean strain (in force-controlled fatigue tests), specifi-
cally in low-cycle fatigue regime (i.e. large deformation). There-
fore, developing a mean strain/stress model for Nitinol may
facilitate better interpretations of fatigue test data as mean
strain/stress responses typically exist in presence of phase
transformation, even in fully reversed load/deformation tests.
Although the more realistic deformation conditions in
many applications is variable amplitude and/or multiaxial
there is no comprehensive study in the existing literature
concerning the fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys under vari-
able amplitude or multiaxial state of loading. A cycle count-
ing method and a cumulative damage rule are the two
inevitable elements of fatigue analysis under variable ampli-
tude loading. Similar to other materials, a standard cycle
counting method such as the method introduced in ASTM
E1049 Standard (ASTM E1049-85, 2011), more commonly
called the “rainflow” technique, is needed to identify
deformation-time reversals within a variable amplitude
block.
To illustrate the challenge of cycle counting for Nitinol,
two different strain histories are designed as displayed in
Fig. 23. The history in Fig. 23(a) has a large cycle in deforma-
tion path followed by a small cycle in unloading, whereas in
Fig. 23 – Two schematic variable amplitude load histories: (a)
large-amplitude cycle followed by a small-amplitude and (b)
small-amplitude cycle followed by a large-amplitude cycle
and their corresponding material response.
the load history in Fig. 23(b), the large cycle occurs after
unloading of a small cycle. Basically, both histories are
comprised of two deformation cycles, i.e. small and large
amplitudes, but in different sequence. Using rainflow cycle
counting technique, similar cycles, mean stresses/strains and
stress/strain amplitudes will be counted for both histories.
Therefore, the same fatigue lives are expected for both
histories in Fig. 23. However, the smaller counted cycle in
Fig. 23(a) is on the lower stress plateau (i.e. unloading),
whereas that in Fig. 23(b) is on the upper stress plateau (i.e.
loading). The fatigue damage caused by the small counted
cycle may be different for the load history due to the different
volume fraction of the martensitic and austenitic phases in
loading and unloading reversals. Therefore, the cycle count-
ing technique must be deformation path-sensitive to capture
the volume fraction of each phase for each counted cycle.
Such a cycle counting method for shape memory alloys are
yet to be developed.
Under variable amplitude state of loading, there is also a
need for a cumulative damage rule to calculate the overall
damage and total fatigue life. Due to the dependency of the
fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloys to the microstructural phase
transformation, the sequence effects on the phase transfor-
mation and fatigue behavior should be clearly understood
and incorporated into the cumulative damage rule. For
example Fig. 24 displays two histories that consist of one
sequence with a small-amplitude block followed by a large-
amplitude block (i.e. Fig. 24(a)) and the other sequence with a
large-amplitude block followed by a small-amplitude block
(i.e. Fig. 24(b)). The material under the small-amplitude block
is an austenitic Nitinol, where a significant portion of the
material has transformed to the martensitic phase for the
larger amplitude block (see Fig. 24(c)). As the fatigue behavior
and mechanical properties will be different for each material,
the deformation sequence matters and the linear cumulative
damage rule presumably may not be appropriate for damage
accumulation in this material. Some studies have suggested
the linear damage rule and an appropriate strain–stress
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
Fig. 24 – Load sequence consideration for variable amplitude fatigue analysis of Nitinol alloys.
damage model such as Smith–Watson–Topper (Colin and
Fatemi, 2010) or Fatemi–Socie (Shamsaei et al., 2011, 2010).
The stress term in such damage models will capture the
sequence effects; therefore, fatigue life predictions using
linear damage rule are reported to be in good agreement
with experimentally observed fatigue lives for low-high, high-
low, and periodic overloading (Colin and Fatemi, 2010) as well
as random and multiaxial loading (Colin and Fatemi, 2010;
Shamsaei et al., 2011, 2010). However, such an approach may
not work for Nitinol because its deformation is pseudo-elastic
and no history effects will be reflected in the stress response.
Therefore, further investigations to understand the fatigue
behavior of Nitinol under variable amplitude deformations is
essential to develop/calibrate a proper cumulative damage
model that accurately captures the sequence and phase
transformation effects on fatigue life. In addition, under
variable amplitude forces/deformations, mean strains/stres-
ses may play a key role on the fatigue behavior, indicating a
need for a mean strain/stress correction model to facilitate
variable amplitude fatigue data analysis.
The multiaxial loading in critical elements of components
and structures arises not only from multidirectional loading,
stress concentrations, or residual stresses, but also from the
underlying microstructural heterogeneities. Multiaxial fatigue
behavior of Nitinol alloys is more complex than other metallic
materials due to their dependency on the loading path (i.e. in-
phase versus out-of-phase) and on the microstructural phase
transformation behavior that is also a path dependent phenom-
enon. A systematic study to understand the multiaxial fatigue
behavior of Nitinol alloys should address several important
factors including damage mechanism, deformation behavior,
and damage parameters (Fatemi and Shamsaei, 2011), as well
as the load path effects on fatigue behavior and phase
transformation.
Understanding the failure mechanism (i.e. shear or tensile
failure mode) of the material provides insights for developing an
appropriate damage parameter. Cyclic deformation may also
influence the multiaxial fatigue behavior as some materials
exhibit an additional cyclic hardening under non-proportional
multiaxial loads. Therefore, cyclic response of Nitinol to propor-
tional and non-proportional multiaxial load paths needs to be
well understood and amount of possible hardening/softening
should be determined for multiaxial fatigue modeling. Thus, a
comprehensive study of multiaxial and load non-proportionality
effects on deformation, fatigue, and phase transformation is
needed. Under a more general variable amplitude multiaxial
249
loading, the multiaxial load path non-proportionality, alternation
and sequence effects on deformation, fatigue and phase trans-
formation are to be also studied in the future.
One of the major challenges in multiaxial fatigue experi-
mentation of Nitinol is to manufacture tubular specimens.
Thin-walled tubular specimens are appropriate for multiaxial
fatigue testing since there is minimal shear stress gradient
under torsion in these specimens (ASTM E2207-08(2013)e1,
2008). However, machining and manufacturing Nitinol to
thin-walled tubular specimens is very difficult (Wu et al.,
1999) and careful attention should be taken to keep the
material properties unchanged.
In order to extend the application of Nitinol in biomedical
industry even further, porous Nitinol parts may be fabricated
to alter the mechanical properties, such as modulus of
elasticity, to match with those of biological materials such as
bone (Elahinia et al., 2012). More importantly, additive manu-
facturing techniques can be used to optimize the pore size and
distribution and build patient-specific implants. Additive man-
ufacturing also provides the opportunity to fabricate parts
with very complex geometries. Therefore, there are many
ongoing research projects (Haberland et al., 2014, 2013) to
facilitate and optimize the additive manufacturing process
for Nitinol components in biomedical applications.
Employing additively manufactured Nitinol parts for med-
ical applications involves additional challenges for fatigue life
modeling and prediction. These challenges arise from several
process parameters involved in the additive manufacturing
process such as laser power, laser transverse speed, powder
feed rate, layer thickness, scanning pattern, building orienta-
tion and more (Shamsaei et al., 2015). Various combinations
of these parameters will cause variations in the thermal
history, in particular cooling rate and thermal gradients,
during fabrication, which may affect microstructural features
and mechanical properties of the product (Shamsaei et al.,
2015; Thompson et al., 2015). The effect of thermal history on
the mechanical and microstructural properties in general and
fatigue behavior in particular is even more noticeable for
additively manufactured Nitinol parts due to the strong
sensitivity of the transformation temperatures to the thermal
history during (Haberland et al., 2014) and after manufactur-
ing (i.e. heat treatment) (Pelton et al., 2000). This may be
explained by re-melting of previously deposited layers and
frequent reheating cycles of the material during part fabrica-
tion, affecting the thermal history by aging and tempering,
and resulting in potential changes in characteristic
250 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
temperatures. Moreover, presence of residual stresses and
unwanted defects (i.e. pores and particles) inherent to addi-
tive manufacturing (Rangaswamy et al., 2005) may influence
the fatigue lifetime of these products. Geometry, laser pro-
cess parameters, and scanning pattern may change the
amount and distribution of the residual stress within the
additively manufactured part (Rangaswamy et al., 2005).
Despite the increasing interest in using additive manufac-
turing techniques to produce Nitinol parts and the impor-
tance of fatigue analysis for these products, the current
literature suffers from the lack of fatigue data for additively
manufactured Nitinol. Therefore, there is a critical need for
systematic studies to determine the synergistic effects of
various additive manufacturing process (e.g. laser power,
powder feed rate, etc.) and design (e.g. layer thickness,
scanning pattern, building orientation, etc.) parameters on
thermal history that influence the microstructural evolution
during solidification. As a result, distinct microstructural
properties, porosity, residual stresses, and characteristic
temperatures may be obtained (Shamsaei et al., 2015), ulti-
mately affecting the mechanical properties and fatigue beha-
vior of additively manufactured Nitinol.
8. Conclusions
A review on the fatigue behavior of Nitinol alloy was pre-
sented and some important factors that influence the fatigue
resistance were discussed. Based on the current state of the
studies in the field, the following conclusions are presented:
1- Fatigue behavior of Nitinol is more complex than other
metallic materials. These complexities arise mainly from
the unique properties of Nitinol such as superelasticity
and shape memory characteristics. From the materials
point of view, the complexities can be related to the
phase transformation and the structural phase of the
material.
2- In majority of current applications, such as biomedical,
superelastic Nitinol is mainly employed where crack
initiation dominates the fatigue behavior. In today’s appli-
cations of Nitinol, fatigue crack growth stage is relatively
short and may not contribute significantly to the total
fatigue life. However, the fatigue crack growth stage may
be longer for Nitinol components such as those used in
aerospace industry.
3- Better understanding of the deformation behavior of
Nitinol is essential for an accurate fatigue evaluation.
The deformation models for Nitinol alloys under cyclic
uniaxial or multiaxial loading should include the effects
of the phase transformation under various combinations
of mechanical and/or thermal loading conditions.
4- Although greater fatigue resistance for thermally mar-
tensitic Nitinol is observed typically in strain-based
approaches, superior fatigue resistance for superelastic
Nitinol alloys can be expected in stress-based fatigue
analysis. Therefore, the fatigue analysis approach for
different applications should be selected based on the
loading or deformation condition (i.e. force-controlled or
strain-controlled) of the real-world application.
5- For a wide range of strain amplitudes (  2–7%), which
corresponds to the stress plateau region in the stress–
strain diagram for the superelastic Nitinol, the fatigue
life is nearly constant in strain-based fatigue analysis.
Therefore, the stress component in the stress plateau
region seems to have more dominant effects than the
strain component on the fatigue behavior. Due to this
reason and the lack of stress-based fatigue data in the
literature, there is a need for more stress-life fatigue
analysis of Nitinol in order to obtain a better under-
standing of the fatigue behavior in force-controlled
conditions.
6- The strain-life fatigue data for superelastic Nitinol alloys
can be divided into different linear sections in the log–log
plot, which correspond to different fatigue regimes.
These fatigue regimes may be generally classified as very
low-cycle, low-cycle, mid-cycle and high-cycle regimes.
Each regime may correspond to different regions in the
stress–strain response of the material such as the auste-
nite region, transition region, stress plateau (transforma-
tion region) and fully martensitic region.
7- Test temperature and transformation temperatures of
different compositions of Nitinol can highly influence the
fatigue resistance of the material. In strain-life fatigue
analysis of Nitinol alloys and for test temperatures above
austenite finish level, where the material is superelastic,
the fatigue resistance decreases by increasing the test
temperature. However, a reverse behavior is observed in
stress-life analysis, as the fatigue resistance of Nitinol
increases with increasing test temperature. This increase
can be mainly attributed to the increase in the stress
plateau of Nitinol in higher temperatures.
8- Both uniaxial stress-life and strain-life fatigue analysis
of Nitinol alloys indicate a multilinear relationship
between the stress/strain amplitude and the fatigue life
in a log–log plot. However, not such a conclusion can be
made under torsion as there are only a few studies
concerning the torsional fatigue behavior of Nitinol in
the literature.
9- In contrast with most metals, the presence of tensile
mean strains may lead to a greater fatigue life for super-
elastic Nitinol alloys. Experimental results in the litera-
ture have revealed that for a certain range of strains,
tensile mean strains may enhance the fatigue strength of
Nitinol alloys due to the formation of stress-induced
martensite. The same behavior may exist for Nitinol
under non-zero torsional mean strains.
10- Functionality of the Nitinol alloys under cyclic loads
decreases. However, the functional parameter reaches a
stable state after a few numbers of cycles of loading (e.g.
100–150 cycles). Such reductions in some functional
properties of Nitinol may be attributed to the activation
of slip systems and/or formation of localized residual
martensitic phase in the material.
11- The transformation temperatures of Nitinol alloys are
subjected to change under thermal cycling, with or without
applied external mechanical forces. This change primarily
appears as a reduction in transformation temperatures. A
stable state of transformation temperatures can be
obtained after a limited number of thermal cycling.
 journal of the mechanical behavior of biomedical materials 50 (2015) 228 –254
12- Fatigue resistance of the Nitinol is highly dependent on
the microstructural factors, such as impurities, inclu-
sions, grain size, and grain orientations. As suggested in
the literature, the fatigue resistance of Nitinol correlates
well with the dimension of the largest inclusion, and
therefore, can be improved by microstructural enhance-
ments such as reducing the grain size or impurity
contents.
13- In a non-controlled test environment, higher test fre-
quencies, which result in an increase in the test tem-
perature, may cause a reduction in the strain-based
fatigue lives of Nitinol wires. However, in controlled test
environments (i.e. constant-temperature tests), effects of
test frequency on the fatigue of Nitinol wires are not
significant.
14- Based on the limited data in the literature, various
parameters such as specimen dimensions, surface finish,
processing and treatments may affect the fatigue resis-
tance of Nitinol alloys. Therefore, more studies are
needed to obtain the effects of these parameters on the
fatigue behavior of these alloys.
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Glossary
Austenite: Stable phase of Nitinol having a simple cubic crystal
structure. Austenite is the parent phase of Nitinol and exists
at temperatures above, what is called, the austenite finish
temperature, Af.
Force-controlled test: A cyclic fatigue test under fixed force
amplitudes, regardless of displacement required to achieve
those forces; also called stress-controlled test.
Martensite: Stable phase of Nitinol with a monoclinic crystal
structure at low temperatures. Martensite is the daughter
phase of Nitinol and generally exists at temperatures below,
what is called, the martensite finish temperature, Mf.
Mixed-phase Nitinol: Nitinol with both martensitic and austenitic
phases. This is mainly referred to a Nitinol at a temperature
above the martensite start temperature, Ms and below the
austenite start temperature, As.
Shape memory behavior: Ability of a thermally martensitic
Nitinol to recover a pre-trained shape upon heating to a
temperature above the austenite finish temperature, Af.
Shape memory Nitinol: The thermally martensitic Nitinol that
refers to a Nitinol at a temperature below the martensite
finish temperature, Mf.
Strain (Displacement)-controlled test: A cyclic fatigue test per-
formed under fixed strain amplitudes, regardless of force
required to achieve those displacements. It should be noted,
“displacement”, per se, is not strain precisely in many cases.
Stress-induced martensite: A martensitic phase of Nitinol that
forms from the austenite phase in superelastic Nitinol, when
the stress reaches a certain level.
Superelasticity (pseudo elasticity): Ability of Nitinol to recover its
original shape upon unloading to zero strain, even after
undergoing large strains, e.g.  10%.
Thermally martensitic Nitinol: The thermally martensitic Nitinol
refers to Nitinol at a temperature below the martensite finish
temperature, Mf. also known as shape memory Nitinol.