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Eingeladener Vortrag
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The integration of additive manufacturing with traditional processes, termed hybrid additive manufacturing, has expanded its application domain, particularly in the repair of gas turbine blade tips. However, process-related defects in additively manufactured materials, interface formation, and material property mismatches in dual-material structures can significantly impact the fatigue performance of components. This investigation examines the low cycle fatigue and fatigue crack growth behaviors in dual-material specimens of nickel-based alloys, specifically the additively manufactured STAL15 and the cast alloy 247DS, at elevated temperatures. Low cycle fatigue experiments were conducted at temperatures of 950 °C and 1000 °C under a range of strain levels (0.3%–0.8%) and fatigue crack growth tests were conducted at 950 °C with stress ratios of 0.1 and −1. Fractographic and microscopic analyses were performed to comprehend fatigue crack initiation and crack growth mechanisms in the dual-material structure. The results consistently indicated crack initiation and fatigue fracture in the additively manufactured STAL15 material. Notably, fatigue crack growth retardation was observed near the interface when the crack extended from the additively manufactured STAL15 material to the perpendicularly positioned interface. This study highlights the importance of considering yield strength mismatch, as well as the potential effects of residual stresses and grain structure differences, in the interpretation of fatigue crack growth behavior at the interface.
High Temperature Fatigue Crack Growth in Nickel-Based Alloys Refurbished by Additive Manufacturing
(2024)
Hybrid additive manufacturing plays a crucial role in the restoration of gas turbine blades, where, e.g., the damaged blade tip is reconstructed by the additive manufacturing process on the existing blade made of a parent nickel-based alloy. However, inherent process-related defects in additively manufactured material, along with the interface created between the additively manufactured and the cast base material, impact the fatigue crack growth behavior in bi-material components. This study investigates the fatigue crack growth behavior in bi-material specimens of nickel-based alloys, specifically, additively manufactured STAL15 and cast alloy 247DS. The tests were conducted at 950 °C with stress ratios of 0.1 and −1. Metallographic and fractographic investigations were carried out to understand crack growth mechanisms. The results revealed significant retardation in crack growth at the interface. This study highlights the potential contributions of residual stresses and microstructural differences to the observed crack growth retardation phenomenon, along with the conclusion from an earlier study on the effect of yield strength mismatch on crack growth behavior at a perpendicular interface in bi-material specimens.
Results of an extended TMF test program on grade P92 steel in the temperature range of 620 ◦C–300 ◦C, comprising in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) tests, partly performed with symmetric dwells at Tmax/Tmin, are presented. In contrast to previous studies, the low-strain regime is also illuminated, which approaches flexible operation in a power plant with start/stop cycles. At all strain amplitudes, the material performance is characterized by continuous cyclic softening, which is retarded in tests at lower strains but reaches similar magnitudes in the course of testing. In the investigated temperature range, the phase angle does not affect fatigue life in continuous experiments, whereas the IP condition is more detrimental in tests with dwells. Fractographic analyses indicate creep-dominated and fatigue-dominated damage for IP and OP, respectively. Analyses of the (micro)hardness distribution in the tested specimens suggest an enhanced microstructural softening in tests with dwell times for the low- but not for the high-strain regime. To rationalize the obtained fatigue data, the fracturemechanics-based DTMF concept, which was developed for TMF life assessment of ductile alloys, was applied. It is found that the DTMF parameter correlates well with the measured fatigue lives, suggesting that subcritical growth of cracks (with sizes from a few microns to a few millimeters) governs failure in the investigated range of strain amplitudes.
In our current view, reference datasets in the MSE domain represent specific material properties, e.g., structural, mechanical, … characteristics. A reference dataset must fulfill high-quality standards, not only in precision of measurement but also in a comprehensive documentation of material, processing, and testing history (metadata). This Infrastructure Use Case (IUC) aims to develop a framework for generating reference material datasets using creep data of a single crystal Ni-based superalloy as a best practice example. In a community-driven process, we aim to encourage the discussion and establish a framework for the creation and distribution of reference material datasets. In this poster presentation, we highlight our current vision and activities and intend to stimulate the discussion about the topic reference datasets and future collaborations and work.
This article refers to the research article entitled “Creep-Fatigue of P92 in Service-Like Tests with Combined Stress- and Strain-Controlled Dwell Times” [1]. It presents experimental mechanical data from complex service-like creep-fatigue experiments performed isothermally at 620 °C and a low strain amplitude of 0.2 % on tempered martensite-ferritic grade P92 steel. The data sets in text file format provide cyclic deformation (min. and max. stresses) and the total (hysteresis) data of all recorded fatigue cycles for three different creep-fatigue experiments: 1) a standard relaxation fatigue (RF) test with symmetrical dwell times of three minutes introduced at minimum and maximum strain, 2) a fully strain-controlled service-like relaxation (SLR) test combining these three-minute peak strain dwells with a 30-minute dwell in between at zero strain, and 3) a partly stress-controlled service-like creep (SLC) test combining the three-minute peak strain dwells with 30-minute dwells at constant stress. Such service-like (SL) tests with additional long-term stress- and strain-controlled dwell times are non-standard, rare, and expensive, making these data very valuable. They may be used to approximate cyclic softening in the technically relevant range, for the design of complex SL experiments, or for detailed analyses of stress-strain hystereses (e.g., for stress or strain partitioning methods, for the determination of hysteresis energies (work), inelastic strain components, etc.). In addition, the latter analyses may supply important input for advanced parametric lifetime modeling of components under creep-fatigue loading or model calibration parameters.
In nickelbasierten Superlegierungen, die für Gasturbinenschaufeln verwendet werden, sind bei hohen Betriebstemperaturen und -belastungen Kriechschäden, Ermüdung, Korrosion und Oxi-dation zu beobachten. Die betroffenen Turbinenschaufeln müssen ersetzt oder repariert werden, um Effizienzverluste und ein eventuelles Bauteilversagen zu vermeiden. In letzter Zeit wurden additive Fertigungs- und Lötverfahren für die Reparatur und das Fügen von Nickelbasiswerk-stoffen entwickelt, um die Einschränkungen der traditionellen Reparaturverfahren zu überwinden. Für eine auslegungsrelevante Bewertung des Risswachstumsverhaltens in den Fügezonen, die durch diese neuen Technologien erzeugt werden, sind Rissfortschrittsuntersuchungen erfor-derlich. Entsprechende Untersuchungen an gefügten Proben werden in diesem Beitrag vorge-stellt. Die Rissfortschrittsversuche werden an gefügten SEN-Proben (Single Edge Notch) bei einem Spannungsverhältnis von 0,1 und einer Temperatur von 950 °C durchgeführt. Das Riss-wachstum wird mit der DCPD-Methode (Direct Current Potential Drop) überwacht, und die ge-messenen Potenzialsignale werden anhand der optisch vermessenen Risslänge und einer Finite-Elemente-Analyse kalibriert. Der Spannungsintensitätsfaktor (SIF) für die gefügte SEN-Geometrie wird mit Hilfe von Finite-Elemente-Analysen berechnet. Auf diese Weise können Rissfortschrittskurven aus den experimentellen Daten abgeleitet werden.
Das hochaktuelle Thema der Integration und Wiederverwendung von Wissen und Daten aus Herstellung, Bearbeitung und Charakterisierung von Materialien ('Digitalisierung von Materialien') wird in den Projekten Innovationsplattform MaterialDigital (PMD, materialdigital.de) und Materials-open-Lab (Mat-o-Lab, matolab.org) adressiert. In diesem Beitrag werden die Weiterentwicklungen in diesen Projekten hinsichtlich der Speicherung von Zugversuchsdaten gemäß einer normenkonformen (DIN EN ISO 6892-1:2019-11) ontologischen Repräsentation vorgestellt. Das umfasst den Weg von der Entwicklung einer Ontologie nach Norm, der Konvertierung von Daten aus Standardtests in das interoperable RDF-Format bis hin zur Verknüpfung von Ontologie und Daten. Letztendlich können die entsprechenden Daten in einem Triple Store abgelegt und abgefragt werden.
Creep-fatigue of P92 in service-like tests with combined stress- and strain-controlled dwell times
(2023)
Complex service-like relaxation- and creep-fatigue tests with strain- and stress-controlled dwells and fatigue cycle durations of approx. 2200 s were performed exemplarily on a grade P92 steel at 620 ◦C in this study. The results indicate deviations in the prevailing creep mechanisms of long-term relaxation and creep dwells, affecting subsequent dwells, load shifts, and the macroscopic softening behavior quite differently. In addition, fracture surfaces and longitudinal metallographic sections reveal intergranular crack growth for complex loading with stress-controlled dwells, whereas complex strain-controlled tests enhance oxidation and transgranular crack propagation. These findings substantiate the limited transferability of relaxation-fatigue to creep-fatigue conditions.
In recent years, the design and development of materials are strongly interconnected with the development of digital technologies. In this respect, efficient data management is the building block of material digitization and, in the field of materials science and engineering (MSE), effective solutions for data standardization and sharing of different digital resources are needed. Therefore, ontologies are applied that represent a map of MSE concepts and relationships between them. Among different ontology development approaches, graphical editing based on standard conceptual modeling languages is increasingly used due to its intuitiveness and simplicity. This approach is also adopted by the Materials-open-Laboratory project (Mat-o-Lab), which aims to develop domain ontologies and method graphs in accordance with testing standards in the field of MSE. To suit the actual demands of domain experts in the project, Ontopanel was created as a plugin for the popular open-source graphical editor diagrams.net to enable graphical ontology editing. It includes a set of pipeline tools to foster ontology development in diagrams.net, comprising imports and reusage of ontologies, converting diagrams to Web Ontology Language (OWL), verifying diagrams using OWL rules, and mapping data. It reduces learning costs by eliminating the need for domain experts to switch between various tools. Brinell hardness testing is chosen in this study as a use case to demonstrate the utilization of Ontopanel.
The dataset contains experimental mechanical data from complex service-like creep-fatigue experiments performed isothermally at 620 °C and a low strain amplitude of 0.2 % on tempered martensite-ferritic grade P92 steel. The data sets in text file format provide cyclic deformation (min. and max. stresses) and the total (hysteresis) data of all recorded fatigue cycles for three different creep-fatigue experiments: 1) a standard relaxation fatigue (RF) test with symmetrical dwell times of three minutes introduced at minimum and maximum strain, 2) a fully strain-controlled service-like relaxation (SLR) test combining these three-minute peak strain dwells with a 30-minute dwell in between at zero strain, and 3) a partly stress-controlled service-like creep (SLC) test combining the three-minute peak strain dwells with 30-minute dwells at constant stress.
Further information on data and data acquisition, analysis, and experimental details are given in “Experimental Data from Service-Like Creep-Fatigue Experiments on Grade P92 Steel”, submitted to Data in Brief. Additional analyses of these datasets, as well as experimental findings and discussions are presented in “Creep-Fatigue of P92 in Service-Like Tests with Combined Stress- and Strain-Controlled Dwell Times”, submitted to International Journal of Fatigue.
The steam side oxidation of ferritic–martensitic VM12-SHC steel was investigated under thermo-cyclic conditions in water steam at 620/320 °C and 30 bar with a focus on assessing the influence of pre-oxidation time, specimen geometry and surface finish. The specimens were pre-oxidized under isothermal conditions in water steam at 620 °C and 30 bar for 500 h or 1500 h. After pre-oxidation treatment, all specimens were subjected up to 258 thermal cycles. Three different geometries—rectangular coupons, U-shaped ring segments and ring samples—were investigated to evaluate the influence of open/closed shape, and flat/curved surface on corrosion rate. At the same time, two types of surface finish were considered: “as received” and “ground.” The formation of a protective scale by pre-oxidation was investigated. EBSD and ESMA analyses revealed that the Cr-content of the alloy appeared to be insufficient for obtaining a protective oxide scale under studied conditions, at the same time the anayses confirmed that initial oxidation depends on presence of minor alloying elements as Si and Mn, strong oxide formers which can alter the kinetics and morphology of the corrosion reaction. Moreover, rectangular coupons with small wall thickness and flat surface exhibited the highest corrosion rate, while “ground” curved samples showed only local oxidation. This indicates that for same pre-oxidation time, oxidation kinetics is controlled by curvature.
The amount of data generated worldwide is constantly increasing. These data come from a wide variety of sources and systems, are processed differently, have a multitude of formats, and are stored in an untraceable and unstructured manner, predominantly in natural language in data silos. This problem can be equally applied to the heterogeneous research data from materials science and engineering. In this domain, ways and solutions are increasingly being generated to smartly link material data together with their contextual information in a uniform and well-structured manner on platforms, thus making them discoverable, retrievable, and reusable for research and industry. Ontologies play a key role in this context. They enable the sustainable representation of expert knowledge and the semantically structured filling of databases with computer-processable data triples.
In this perspective article, we present the project initiative Materials-open-Laboratory (Mat-o-Lab) that aims to provide a collaborative environment for domain experts to digitize their research results and processes and make them fit for data-driven materials research and development. The overarching challenge is to generate connection points to further link data from other domains to harness the promised potential of big materials data and harvest new knowledge.
Results of an extended TMF test program on grade P92 steel in the temperature range of 620 °C - 300 °C, comprising in-phase (IP) and out-of-phase (OP) tests, partly performed with symmetric dwells at Tmax/Tmin, are presented. In contrast to previous studies, the low-strain regime is also illuminated, which approaches flexible operation in a power plant with start/stop cycles. At all strain amplitudes, the material performance is characterized by continuous cyclic softening, which is retarded in tests at lower strains but reaches similar magnitudes in the course of testing. In the investigated temperature range, the phase angle does not affect fatigue life in continuous experiments, whereas the IP condition is more detrimental in tests with dwells. Fractographic analyses indicate creep-dominated and fatigue-dominated damage for IP and OP, respectively. Analyses of the (micro)hardness distribution in the tested specimens suggest an enhanced microstructural softening in tests with dwell times for the low- but not for the high-strain regime. To rationalize the obtained fatigue data, the fracture-mechanics-based D_TMF concept, which was developed for TMF life assessment of ductile alloys, was applied. It is found that the D_TMF parameter correlates well with the measured fatigue lives, suggesting that subcritical growth of cracks (with sizes from a few microns to a few millimeters) governs failure in the investigated range of strain amplitudes.
Charakterisierung von Hochtemperaturwerkstoffen durch Zug- und Ermüdungsversuche an Kleinproben
(2019)
Die Verwendung von miniaturisierten Probengeometrien in der mechanischen Prüfung ermöglicht die Entnahme des Probenmaterials direkt aus kritischen Bereichen wie Fügeverbindungen und ermöglicht die Prüfung von kleinen Bauteilen wie additiv gefertigten Strukturen. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden exemplarisch die Ergebnisse von vergleichenden Zug- und niederzyklischen Schwing-versuchen (LCF) an dem austenitischen Stahl AISI 316L und der Nickelbasislegierung IN718 vorgestellt. Die Prüfergebnisse der Kleinproben aus AISI 316L weisen die charakteristischen Eigenschaften des Werkstoffs auf, und die Analyse der Zug- und Ermüdungsdaten führt zu Werten, die den Literaturdaten weitgehend entsprechen. Der direkte Vergleich mit Standardprobendaten zeigt jedoch systematische Abweichungen bei Zugfestigkeit, Dehngrenze und Gleichmaßdehnung, die in diesem Beitrag diskutiert werden.
The current competitive situation on electricity markets forces power plants into cyclic operation regimes with frequent load shifts and starts/shutdowns. In the present work, the cyclic mechanical behavior of ferritic-martensitic 9-12 % Cr steels under isothermal and thermomechanical loading was investigated for the example of grade P92 material. A continuous softening was observed under all loading conditions. The introduction of hold periods to the applied cycles reduced material lifetime, with most prominent effects at technologically relevant small strain levels. The microstructural characterization reveals a coarsening of the original “martensitic” lath-type microstructure to a structure with polygonal subgrains and reduced dislocation density. The microstructural data forms the input for a physically-based modelling approach, both of which are presented in “Part 2: Microstructural Evolution during Cyclic Loading and its Representation in a Physically-based Micromechanical Model“.
The current competitive situation on electricity markets forces conventional power plants into cyclic operation regimes with frequent load shifts and starts/shutdowns. In the present work, the cyclic mechanical behavior of ferritic-martensitic 9-12 % Cr steels under isothermal and thermomechanical loading was investigated for the example of grade P92 material. A continuous softening was observed under all loading conditions. The introduction of hold periods to the applied cycles reduced material lifetime, with most prominent effects at technologically relevant small strain levels. The microstructural characterization reveals a coarsening of the original “martensitic” lath-type microstructure to a structure with polygonal subgrains and reduced dislocation density. The microstructural data forms the input for a physically-based modelling approach.
Cyclic mechanical performance and microstructure evolution of P92 under LCF and TMF conditions
(2019)
9-12% Cr ferritic-martensitic stainless steels are widely used as high temperature construction materials in fossil fueled power plants due to their excellent creep and oxidation resistance, but changes in electricity markets during the last two decades have considerably changed the typical working conditions of these facilities. The growing contribution of renewable energy sources in power generation forces most of these plants into flexible operation with frequent load shifts or shutdowns. These cyclic operation profiles constitute a major lifetime issue, raising the question which fundamental processes govern the reaction of ferritic-martensitic steels to cyclic load and temperature variations.
The present contribution reports on current findings obtained in a multidisciplinary project funded by German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) which combines cyclic mechanical and cyclic oxidation testing of different 9-12% Cr grades with detailed microstructural analyses and related micromechanical modeling.
In this contribution, an overview will be given on the results obtained in the mechanical testing programme of the project. Mechanical analyses were carried out on P91 and (mainly) P92 steel grades, particularly looking at softening phenomena and lifetimes obtained in isothermal cyclic loading (low cycle fatigue, LCF), non-isothermal cyclic loading (thermo-mechanical fatigue, TMF), and service-like combinations of fatigue and creep/relaxation periods. For this purpose, cylindrical specimens were extracted from thick-walled steam pipes, orthogonal to the pipe axis, and subjected to strain controlled cyclic loading (± 0.2 to ±0.5 % mechanical strain). Temperature intervals of TMF tests were chosen as either 300-620°C or 500-620°C, resembling so-called warm or hot start conditions of a power plant.
The test results will be presented and discussed with a focus on the impact of hold periods during testing (combined creep/relaxation-fatigue conditions) on mechanical softening, lifetime and formation of cracks. The findings will be complemented by results on the modification of the hierarchical ferritic-martensitic microstructure under different loading scenarios.
Due to their excellent creep resistance and good oxidation resistance, 9–12% Cr ferritic–martensitic stainless steels are widely used as high temperature construction materials in power plants. However, the mutual combination of different loadings (e.g., creep and fatigue), due to a “flexible” operation of power plants, may seriously reduce the lifetimes of the respective components. In the present study, low cycle fatigue (LCF) and relaxation fatigue (RF) tests performed on grade P92 helped to understand the behavior of ferritic–martensitic steels under a combined loading. The softening and lifetime behavior strongly depend on the temperature and total strain range. Especially at small strain amplitudes, the lifetime is seriously reduced when adding a hold time which indicates the importance of considering technically relevant small strains.
The current competitive situation on electricity markets forces power plants into cyclic operation regimes with frequent load shifts and starts/shutdowns. In the present work, the cyclic mechanical behavior of ferritic-martensitic 9-12 % Cr steels under isothermal and thermomechanical loading was investigated for the example of grade P92 material. A continuous softening was observed under all loading conditions. The introduction of hold periods to the applied cycles reduced material lifetime, with most prominent effects at technologically relevant small strain levels. The microstructural characterization reveals a coarsening of the original “martensitic” lath-type microstructure to a structure with polygonal subgrains and reduced dislocation density. The microstructural data forms the input for a physically-based modelling approach.
9-12% Cr ferritic-martensitic stainless steels are widely used as high temperature construction materials in power plants due to their excellent creep and oxidation resistance. The growing share of renewable energy sources in power generation forces many of these plants into more flexible operation with frequent load shifts or shutdowns. These cyclic operation profiles constitute a major lifetime issue.
The present contribution reports on current findings obtained in a multidisciplinary project which combines cyclic mechanical and cyclic oxidation testing with detailed microstructural analyses. Mechanical analyses are carried out on P92 and P91 steel grades to give an overview of softening phenomena and lifetimes obtained in isothermal cyclic loading (low cycle fatigue, LCF), non-isothermal cyclic loading (thermo-mechanical fatigue, TMF), and service-like combinations of creep and fatigue periods (creep-fatigue interaction).
Oxidation testing focuses on the grades P92 and VM12 with the intention of clarifying the impact of frequent passes through intermediate temperature levels on the kinetics of steam-side oxidation and the characteristics of the evolving oxide scales. An attempt is made to evaluate their composition, strength, integrity and adhesion after up to 250 temperature cycles. Flat coupons as well as curved tube sections are tested to assess the mutual influence of geometry on oxide scale integrity.
Complementary microstructural investigations by scanning and transmission electron microscopy plus EBSD are used for phase identification and substrate/oxide interface characterisation. The evolutions of grain size and dislocation density under different test conditions are quantified.
9-12% Cr ferritic-martensitic stainless steels are widely used as high temperature construction materials in power plants due to their excellent creep and oxidation resistance. The growing share of renewable energy sources in power generation forces many of these plants into more flexible operation with frequent load shifts or shutdowns. These cyclic operation profiles constitute a major lifetime issue. The present contribution reports on current findings obtained in a multidisciplinary project which combines cyclic mechanical and cyclic oxidation testing of different 9-12% Cr grades with detailed microstructural analyses.
Mechanical analyses are carried out on P92 and P91 steel grades to give an overview of softening phenomena and lifetimes obtained in isothermal cyclic loading (low cycle fatigue, LCF), non-isothermal cyclic loading (thermo-mechanical fatigue, TMF), and service-like combinations of creep and fatigue periods.
Complementary microstructural investigations by scanning and transmission electron microscopy plus EBSD are used for phase identification, substrate/oxide interface characterization and quantification of the microstructure evolution under cyclic conditions.
We use pattern matching of experimental and dynamically simulated backscattered Kikuchi diffraction (BKD) patterns to increase the orientation precision of electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) measurements. In order to quantify the improvement in orientation precision, we analyze the experimental distribution of the kernel average misorientation (KAM) angles. We find that for the same raw data, i.e. the same EBSD data acquisition time budget, the pattern matching approach improves the KAM resolution by an order of magnitude compared to orientation data delivered from the conventional Hough-transform based data analysis. This quantitative improvement enables us to interpret small orientation changes in plastically deformed materials which are hidden in noisy orientation data delivered from the reference EBSD system.
As an application example, we analyze a ferritic-martensitic steel (P92) sample before and after low-cycle fatigue (LCF) loading (±0.3% strain) at 620 °C. Whereas the low precision of the EBSD orientation data from the manufacturer software does not allow a reliable discrimination of the gradually changing microstructure, we find very clear systematic differences of the local microstructure after the pattern matching orientation refinement of the initial, raw pattern data. For the investigated P92 sample, the KAM-angle histograms are well described by two log-normal distributions indicating the already tempered and the remaining and mostly untempered martensite.
Performing mechanical tests at high temperatures is a nontrivial issue: Compared to room temperature testing, additional phenomena like time-dependent Deformation processes and oxidation effects raise the complexity of the material’s response, while more sophisticated test setups and additional control parameters increase the number of potential sources of error. To a large extent, these complications can be overcome by carefully following all recommendations given in the respective high temperature testing standards, but more comprehensive background information helps to identify points of specific importance in particular test campaigns. In this chapter, an overview is given on general high temperature testing issues like the appropriate choice of experimental equipment and key aspects of temperature measurement. In subsequent sections, the major static and dynamic high temperature test methods are reviewed and their Special features, as compared to testing at room temperature, are highlighted based on example data sets. Influences of specimen size and environmental effects are shortly outlined in a concluding section. In the whole chapter, a focus is set on testing of “classical” metallic high temperature materials, but many considerations are equally valid for testing of intermetallics, composites, and high temperature ceramics.
Temperature-induced, stress-induced martensitic phase transitions and martensite reorientation process in Ni rich (50.9 at.%) NiTi pseudoelastic NiTi wires with ultra-fine grained (UFG) microstructure were studied by electrical resistance measurements. Measurements of the electrical resistance as a function of temperature at different constant mechanical loads accompanied by complementary experiments with variable loads at constant temperature were performed. Results show that the transformation mechanisms in UFG microstructures exhibit a higher level of complexity when compared with those characterizing the behavior of other microstructures (e.g., recrystallized or larger grains size). It was found that a threshold stress level below 150 MPa delimits the transition from a homogeneous (low stress) to localized but reversible Lüders type transformation (high stress) when the transformations are induced under constant applied stress and that reorientation processes require stresses of 100 MPa in the present UFG wires. Even though the strain evolutions do not always show two distinct yielding events during cooling or heating, electrical resistance measurements proved that a two-step transformation involving R-phase and B19' martensite was always present in the extended range of temperatures and stresses investigated here.