Shape Memory Alloys

Abstract

Shape memory alloys (SMA) are metal alloy materials that have been receiving increasingly more attention and study in recent years. These materials exhibit solid-state phase transformation by temperature between two different phase variants martensite and austenite under shape memory effect (SME). Upon heating, the material is in the high strength austenite state, and on cooling, the material changes to the low strength martensite state. This chapter of the book displays the basic feature, the character that made shape memory alloy a smart material.