Microstructure and Texture Evolution during Severe Plastic Deformation at Cryogenic Temperatures in an Al-0.1Mg Alloy

The deformation structures formed in an Al-0.1Mg single-phase aluminium alloy have been studied during plane strain compression (PSC) down to liquid nitrogen temperature, following prior equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) to a strain of ten. Under constant deformation conditions a steady state was approached irrespective of the temperature, where the rate of grain refinement stagnated and a minimum grain size was reached which could not be further reduced. A 98% reduction at 77 K (−196 °C) only transformed the ECAE processed submicron grain structure into a microstructure with thin ribbon grains, where a nanoscale high angle boundary (HAB) spacing was only approached in the sheet normal direction. It is shown that the minimum grain size achievable in severe deformation processing is controlled by a balance between the rate of compression of the HAB structure and dynamic recovery. The required boundary migration rate to maintain a constant boundary spacing is found far higher than can be justified from conventional diffusion-controlled grain growth and at low temperatures, a constant boundary spacing can only be maintained by invoking an athermal mechanism and is considered to be dominated by the operation of grain boundary dislocations.

Formation of Nanolaminated Structure with Enhanced Thermal Stability in Copper

Nanolaminated structure with an average boundary spacing of 67 nm has been fabricated in copper by high-rate shear deformation at ambient temperature. The nanolaminated structure with an increased fraction of low angle grain boundaries exhibits a high microhardness of 2.1 GPa. The structure coarsening temperature is 180 K higher than that of its equiaxial nanograined counterpart. Formation of nanolaminated structure provides an alternative way to relax grain boundaries and to stabilize nanostructured metals with medium to low stacking faults energies besides activation of partial dislocations.

Shear Localization and Microstructure Evolution in AlMgMnEr Alloy during Dynamic Deformation

The dynamic mechanical property and microstructure evolution in localized shear deformation was investigated in the Al-5.6%Mg-0.75%M-0.25%Er alloy cold rolled to 80% reduction by using Gleeble 3500 compression at the strain rate of 0.01~500s-1. The results show that both a critical strain rate and strain were required for the formation of local shear band under high strain rate compression. The initial Lamellar Boundaries (LBs) in the matrix region are parallel to the rolling direction (RD), with average boundary spacing of 0.25μm; The LBs within the shear bands region have a angle of 20° with RD, whose boundary spacing is ranging from 0.1 to 0.2μm. The LBs gradually rotate to an angle of 20° with RD and finally become wavy shape during the dynamic deformation.