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Microstructure, mechanical properties and wear resistance in an ultrafine-grained Al–Mg–Si alloy fabricated utilizing a combination of equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) and dynamic aging were investigated in this paper. The results indicated that the grain size of the ECAP alloy was significantly refined, i.e., to ~239 nm after three ECAP passes. Meanwhile, the yield and tensile strength of the ECAPed material reached 340 MPa and 445 MPa, respectively, while maintaining a significant uniform elongation of 14%. Wear resistance results demonstrated that the wear rate, wear depth and width of the ECAPed material decreased in comparison with the solution-treated (SST) and peak-aged (T6) conditions under a load range of 5–25 N. The adhesive wear that occurs in the undeformed specimens at 10 N does not appear in the ECAPed specimen at the same load, indicating that the ECAPed specimen delay the appearance of more serious wear mechanisms under certain loads. The cooperative interaction of high density nano-scale β" precipitates and dislocations resulted in a combination of super-high strength and good work hardening ability which suppressed the extension of cracks between the friction layer and the plastic deformation zone. As a consequence, the combination of ECAP and dynamic aging brings a significant improvement for antifriction performance of the 6061 aluminum alloy. Image 1 • Super-high strength and high ductility achieved in an Al–Mg–Si alloy. • Cooperative interaction of nano-scale β" precipitates and dislocations verified. • Enhanced wear resistance resulted via super-high strength and good work hardening rate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the present investigation, both static and dynamic precipitations of an Al–Mg–Si–Cu aluminum alloy after solid-solution treatment (SST) were comparatively analyzed using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Dynamic aging was performed in the SST alloy through equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at different temperatures of room temperature, 110, 170, 191 and 300 °C. For comparison, static artificial aging was conducted in the SST alloy at 191 °C with two aging times of 4 and 10 h. The DSC analyses reveal that the dynamic precipitation has occurred in the ECAPed samples, while the activation energies associated with the strengthening precipitates in the dynamic samples are considerably higher than the energies in the SST and static aged samples. The higher activation energies are probably attributed to the smaller grains and higher dislocation density developed after ECAP. The results in the present investigation allow the prediction of the type of the dynamic precipitates to influence the strength of the ultrafine grained alloy during ECAP at various temperatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]