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Achieving Grain Refinement and Related Mechanical Property Improvement of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Through Severe Plastic Deformation

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Abstract

Microstructural features and mechanical properties of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) have been investigated. The equivalent plastic strain obtained from the simulation agrees well with that from the analytical calculation in a way that both increase with an increase in deformation, but the strain distribution is non-uniform, appearing as a strain gradient along the norm direction. Microstructure investigation shows that grain refinement is achieved in frequency of low-angle grain boundaries fabricated by ECAP. The pole density is reduced by ECAP, during which the Brass and Goss type textures are introduced. TEM results show chain-like recrystallized grains formed at the grain boundaries and broken second-phase particles come into being due to the heavy shear force. After ECAP, the hardness and strength increase significantly while the elongation is reduced. Besides, an extreme strengthening is confirmed because of the balance between dynamic hardening and softening. The microstructure evolution mechanism is revealed in terms of grain refinement, precipitate phase breakage and texture evolution.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their sincere thanks for the research grants supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51275414, 51605387), Project supported by the Research Fund of the State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing (NWPU), China (Grant No. 130-QP-2015), Province Natural Science Foundation of Shaanxi (2015JM5204) and the Graduate Starting Seed Fund of Northwestern Polytechnical University (No. Z2017098).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Solidification Processing, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Jinghui Li, Fuguo Li, Wenjing Wang, Xinkai Ma & Jiang Li

  2. Department of Material Forming and Control Engineering, School of Metallurgical Engineering, Anhui University of Technology, Ma’anshan, 243002, China

    Jinghui Li

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  1. Jinghui Li
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  2. Fuguo Li
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  3. Wenjing Wang
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  4. Xinkai Ma
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  5. Jiang Li
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Correspondence to Fuguo Li.

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Li, J., Li, F., Wang, W. et al. Achieving Grain Refinement and Related Mechanical Property Improvement of an Al-Zn-Mg-Cu Alloy Through Severe Plastic Deformation. J. of Materi Eng and Perform 27, 6690–6700 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3758-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11665-018-3758-z

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