Shape-memory metallic alloy damping body

Abstract

A metallic damping body for damping shock-type and/or periodically changing stresses, consists of a shape-memory alloy material for effecting the damping. In order to be able to achieve a high damping effect even under a high mechanical stress on the damping body, the shape-memory alloy is selected such that it is in a state of austenitic microstructure at the operating temperature of the damping body. A sufficiently high mechanical prestress is applied to the damping body so that the damping working range is within the range of the pseudoelastic strain which starts below the proportionality limit in the stress/strain diagram of the shape-memory alloy. When the damping body is compressively stressed, a multiplicity of closely adjacent, small, uniformly distributed voids are present in the interior thereof, which together make up at least about 5%, preferably about 15 to 40%, of the total volume of the damping body. This allows free movement of the material particles in the region of the individual grain boundaries even in the interior of the damping body.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.