Superplastic Constitutive Equation Including Percentage of High-Angle Grain Boundaries as a Microstructural Parameter

Abstract

Fifteen Al-Mg-Sc samples with subgrain/grain sizes in the range of 1.8 to 4.9 μm were prepared through the processing methods of friction stir processing (FSP), equal-channel-angular pressing (ECAP), rolling, annealing, and combinations of the above. The percentages of high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) of these fine-grained alloys were distributed from 39 to 97 pct. The samples processed through FSP had a higher percentage of HAGBs compared to other samples. Superplasticity was achieved in all fifteen samples, but the FSP samples exhibited better superplasticity than other samples because their fine equiaxed grains, which were mostly surrounded by HAGBs, were conducive to the occurrence of grain boundary sliding (GBS) during superplastic deformation. The dominant deformation mechanism was the same for all fifteen samples, i.e., GBS controlled by grain boundary diffusion. However, the subgrains were the GBS units for the rolled or ECAP samples, which contained high percentages of unrecrystallized grains, whereas the fine grains were the GBS units for the FSP samples. Superplastic data analysis revealed that the dimensionless A in the classical constitutive equation for superplasticity of fine-grained Al alloys was not a constant, but increased with an increase in the percentage of HAGBs, demonstrating that the enhanced superplastic deformation kinetics can be ascribed to the high percentage of HAGBs. A modified superplastic constitutive equation with the percentage of HAGBs as a new microstructural parameter was established.