Abstract - CTS-9808269 Lavine, Adrienne G. Shape memory alloys represent a new and exciting material used by actuators. NiTi is such a material, but one whose usefulness has been limited by its low cycling speed. Thin film NiTi may overcome this disadvantage, but the current state of knowledge does not permit accurate modeling of its response. This proposal aims to develop a nonlinear, coupled, thermo-mechanical model to predict the response of thin film NiTi. The proposed work consists of: 1) measuring the properties, 2) conducting experiments to evaluate the cyclic response under a variety of environmenntal conditions, 3) developing a model which will accurately reflect its behavior at high frequencies.
