Effect of Equal Channel Angular Pressing on Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Commercial Purity Aluminum

Abstract

Commercial purity aluminum was deformed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) using steel dies producing two different shear strains of either 1.15 or 0.60 in each pass. Two sets of samples were selected for study, of which the first set consists of aluminum billets repeatedly deformed without changing orientation (process A) up to three passes using first die. The second set of samples was equal channel angular pressed (ECAPed) using the second die up to 10 passes adopting process Bc, where samples were rotated by 90 deg between successive passes. The flow patterns were revealed by optical metallography. Tensile strength and hardness were measured. The ECAPed samples were isochronally-annealed and recrystallization behavior was studied by microscopy and Vickers hardness measurements. Refinement of grain size, substructure, and texture was studied by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and orientation imaging microscopy (OIM). The results show that flow patterns are complex and distinct from simple shear. Strain is higher at the outer surfaces, highest at the bottom surface, and intermediate in the middle of the billet. The work piece strain hardens significantly in first pass with an attendant drop in ductility. The degree of strengthening reduces in subsequent passes. The high defect density introduced during the initial passes leads to grain refinement to an ultrafine level and advantageously the material regains ductility. The refinement in microstructure obtained after two to three passes is stable up to 250 °C. The flow patterns are very similar to those obtained by physical modeling in our earlier studies using plasticine. Equiaxed ultrafine-grained structure (average grain size = 0.53 μm) was obtained after ECAP at an equivalent shear strain of 6.0.