Effects of strain accumulation on the superplastic deformation behavior of 7075 Al alloy

The superplastic deformation behavior of a fine-grained 7075 Al alloy has been investigated within the framework of an internal variable theory for inelastic deformation. The theory takes the dislocation glide process within and across the grain boundaries (grain matrix deformation (GMD)) as the major accommodation mechanism for the grain boundary sliding (GBS). The flow curves were obtained by performing a series of load relaxation tests at the various prestrain values to examine the effects of accumulated strain on the superplastic deformation behavior. The most significant result obtained in this study is that the grain boundary characteristics change gradually with the strain accumulation from an initially Newtonian viscous flow signified with the power index value of Mg=1 to a non-Newtonian flow with the value of Mg=0.5 commonly observed in the various microduplex alloys such as Ti-6Al-4V. The variation of GBS characteristics with the prestrain is then examined by observing the microstructural evolution with the strain through the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM).