Localizing sources of acoustic emission during the martensitic transformation

Acoustic avalanches are a general feature of solids under stress, e.g., evoked by external compression or arising from internal processes like martensitic phase transformations. From integral measurements, it is usually concluded that nucleation, phase boundary pinning, or interface incompatibilities during this first-order phase transition all may generate acoustic emission. This paper studies the local sources of acoustic emission to enlight the microscopic mechanisms. From two-dimensional spatially resolved acoustic emission measurement and simultaneous optical observation of the surface, we can identify microstructural events at the phase boundary that lead to acoustic emission. A resolution in the 100-μm range was reached for the location of acoustic emission sources on a coarse-grained Ni-Mn-Ga polycrystal. Both, the acoustic activity and the size distribution of the microstructural transformation events, exhibit power-law behavior. The origin of the acoustic emission are elastically incompatible areas, such as differently oriented martensitic plates that meet each other, lamellae growing up to grain boundaries, and grain boundaries in proximity to transforming grains. Using this result, we propose a model to explain the decrease of the critical exponent under a mechanical stress or magnetic field.