Mechanical fatigue and fracture of Nitinol

Nitinol, a near equiatomic intermetallic of nickel and titanium, is the most widely known and used shape memory alloy. Owing to its capacity to undergo a thermal or stress induced martensitic phase transformation, Nitinol displays recoverable strains that are more than an order of magnitude greater than in traditional alloys, specifically as high as 10%. Since its discovery in the 1960s, Nitinol has been used for its shape memory properties for couplings and actuators, although its contemporary use has been in for medical devices. For these applications, the stress induced transformation (‘superelasticity’) has been used extensively for self-expanding implantable devices such as endovascular stents and vena cava filters, and for tools such as endodontic files. Most of these applications involve cyclically varying biomechanical stresses or strains that drive the need to fully understand the fatigue and fracture resistance of this alloy. Here we review the existing knowledge base on the fatigue of Nitinol, both in terms of their stress or strain life (total life) and damage tolerant (crack propagation) behaviour, together with their fracture toughness properties. We further discuss the application of such data to the fatigue design and life prediction methodologies for Nitinol implant devices used in the medical industry.