Application of the combination of extrusion and equal channel angular pressing for processing fine grained and nanostructured metallic materials

Severe plastic deformation is one of the most effective methods of grain refinement which can be used for processing of ultra fine grained and nanostructured metallic materials. In the present study the combination of extrusion and equal channel angular pressing is imployed for severe plastic deformation of materials. Using this method, a severe plastic deformation was imposed succesfully on pure copper, Al7075 alloy, plain low carbon and microalloyed steels. The cabability of the proposed methode in production of nanostructured materials was approved by anallyzing the obtained microstructures of processed samples with opticaal microscopy and X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. The mean crystallite size of processed Al7075 alloy and plain low carbon steel was meassured to be 160 and 125 nm respectively. Also, the plastic deformation was applied on these materials at high temperatures. In the case of Al7075 alloy the microstructure was refined to the mean grain size of 6 µm through the occurance of dynamic recrystallization during deformation at the preheating temperature of 250 ̊C. Also, the plastic deformation of plain carbon steel at the preheating temperature of 930 ̊C demonstrated that the microstructure can be refined to 3 µm through dynamic strain induced transformation of austenite to ferrite. Moreover, the plastic deformation characteristics of combined extrusion-equal channel angular pressing was studied using finite element simultion. The formation of superficial cracks on the topside of Al7075 sample was also predicted using the FEM analysis.