The Giant Elastocaloric Effect in a Cu-Zn-Al Shape-Memory Alloy: a Calorimetric Study

Abstract

We study the giant elastocaloric effect in a Cu-Zn-Al shape-memory alloy by means of simultaneous calorimetry and dilatometry measurements under applied uniaxial compression which have been carried out with a bespoke experimental setup. The output data allow a unique quasidirect and indirect characterization of the thermal response that provides accurate ΔS and ΔT values. We report a large thermal response of |ΔS| = 22 J K kg−1, |ΔT| = 12.3 K, and RC = 325 K kg−1 driven by moderate uniaxial compression changes of 32.2 MPa, which is comparable with the performance of the best magnetocaloric materials. In view of the hysteresis effects, the thermal response is predicted to exhibit reversible values for |Δσ| = 32 MPa.