Effect of ECAP on the Plastic Strain Homogeneity, Microstructural Evolution, Crystallographic Texture and Mechanical Properties of AA2xxx Aluminum Alloy

This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) processing on the structural evolution and mechanical properties of AA2xxx aluminum alloy. Finite element analysis (FE) was used to study the deformation behavior of the AA2xxx billets during processing in addition investigate the strain homogeneity in the longitudinal and transverse direction. Billets of AA2011 aluminum alloy were processed successfully through ECAP up to 4-passes with rotating the sample 90 degrees along its longitudinal axis in the same direction after each pass (route Bc) at 150 degrees C. The microstructural evolution and crystallographic texture were analyzed using the electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) and optical microscopy (OM). An evaluation of the hardness and tensile properties was presented and correlated with the EBSD findings and FE simulations. The FE analysis results were in good agreement with the experimental finding and microstructural evolution. Processing through 4-passes produced an ultrafine-grained structure (UFG) and a recrystallized fine grain dominated the structure coupled with a geometric grain subdivision which indicated by grain refining and very high density of substructures. This reduction in grain size was coupled with an enhancement in the hardness, tensile strength by 66.6%, and 52%, respectively compared to the as-annealed counterpart. Processing through 1-pass and 2-passes resulted in a strong texture with significant rotation for the texture components whereas 4-passes processing led to losing the symmetry of the texture with significant reduction in the texture intensity.