Two commercial Al alloys having different second phase particle distributions were subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) via equal channel angular pressing with or without subsequent cold rolling, and the effect of such SPD on the particle size distribution of the alloys was investigated. The particles larger than ∼ 3 μm were fragmented into several smaller ones by SPD. Contrarily, those smaller than ∼ 3 μm were hardly broken up by SPD but their distribution became more uniform. Along with these findings and the theoretical models for cavity nucleation at second phase particles, the cavitation behavior of ultrafine grained Al alloys during low temperature or high strain rate superplastic deformation was discussed.