Enhanced creep properties of copper and its alloys processed by ECAP

This work describes the effect of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) on the microstructure and creep properties of pure copper and its two binary alloys with addition of small amounts of Zr or Co. The ECAP pressing was performed at room temperature by route Be up to 12 passes using a die with an internal angle of 90 degrees between the two parts of the channel. Ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructure formed through ECAP process has been studied by methods of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) equipped with the electron backseatter diffraction (EBSD) unit. Tensile creep tests were conducted in tension at temperature 673 K and at different applied stresses on ECAP material and, for comparison purposes, on un-pressed coarse-grained states of materials under investigation too. It was found that both alloys processed by ECAP exhibited similar character of creep behaviour. Creep resistance was markedly improved after first two ECAP passes in comparison with creep behaviour of un-pressed materials. The minimum creep rate of ECAP material may be up to two orders of magnitude lower than that of un-pressed material. However, subsequent ECAP passes lead to a decline of creep life and the difference in the minimum creep rate for the ECAP material and un-pressed state consistently decreases with increasing number of ECAP passes. Further, ECAP process led to significant improvements in fracture strain. The link between microstructural processes and creep behaviour of pressed copper and its selected alloys is examined in detail.