Influence of ECAP as grain refinement technique on microstructure evolution, mechanical properties and corrosion behavior of pure aluminum

Pure aluminum samples were processed by equal channel angular pressing（ECAP） up to 10 passes at room temperature. The effects of the ECAP number of passes on the microstructure evolution, the mechanical properties, deformation homogeneity and corrosion behavior of the processed samples were fully investigated. The imposed strain resulted in an obvious reduction in the grain size from 390 μm before ECAP down to 1.8, 0.4, and 0.3 μm after ECAP up to 2, 4 and 10 passes, respectively. The microhardness, deformation homogeneity and tensile strength were increased while the elongation decreased with the increase of ECAP number of passes. Immersion tests, open circuit potential, Tafel polarization, cyclic polarization and potentiostatic measurements in 3.5% Na Cl solution revealed an obvious improvement in the corrosion resistance of ECAP processed samples compared with the as-cast sample. The increase of the number of passes can be used successfully in producing ultra-fine grained（UFG） bulk pure aluminum sample with a high misorientation angle, reasonably high mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.

3D FEM simulations and experimental validation of plastic deformation of pure aluminum deformed by ECAP and combination of ECAP and direct extrusion

Rigid-viscoplastic3D finite element simulations(3D FEM)of the equal channel angular pressing(ECAP),thecombination of ECAP+extrusion with different extrusion ratios,and direct extrusion of pure aluminum were performed andanalyzed.The3D FEM simulations were carried out to investigate the load-displacement behavior,the plastic deformationcharacteristics and the effective plastic strain homogeneity of Al-1080deformed by different forming processes.The simulationresults were validated by microstructure observations,microhardness distribution maps and the correlation between the effectiveplastic strain and the microhardness values.The3D FEM simulations were performed successfully with a good agreement with theexperimental results.The load-displacement curves and the peak load values of the3D FEM simulations and the experimentalresults were close from each other.The microhardness distribution maps were in a good conformity with the effective plastic straincontours and verifying the3D FEM simulations results.The ECAP workpiece has a higher degree of deformation homogeneity thanthe other deformation processes.The microhardness values were calculated based on the average effective plastic strain.Thepredicted microhardness values fitted the experimental results well.The microstructure observations in the longitudinal andtransverse directions support the3D FEM effective plastic strain and microhardness distributions result in different formingprocesses.

Wear properties of copper and copper composites powders consolidated by high-pressure torsion

The wear characteristics of Cu and Cu-SiC composite microsize powders consolidated by cold com­paction combined with sintering or high-pressure torsion(HPT)were investigated.The HPT processed(HPTed)samples with bimodal and trimodal microstructures and fine Cu grains and SiC particle sizes have superior hardness,reasonable ductility level,and high wear resistance.The wear mass loss and coefficient of friction of HPTed samples were remarkably lower than that of cold-compacted and sintered samples as well as that of micro and nano Cu and Cu-SiC composites from previous studies.The sample fabrication method has an apparent influence on the wear mechanism.The wear mechanism was converted from adhesive,delamination,three-body mechanism,grooves(take off the SiC particles),and cracks into abrasive wear after HPT.Oxidization can be considered a dominant wear mechanism in all cases.The worn surface morphology and analysis support the relationship between wear mechanism and characteristics.