Effect of combining plane-strain compression with equal channel angular pressing on mechanical properties and texture development in an Al alloy.

Commercial purity aluminum (1050) was processed via equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) to one, two, and four passes using route B_c in a 90° channel die, and subsequently compressed in plane strain in two different loading directions, and to two different strain levels. One of the plane-strain-loading directions is parallel to the ECAP forward direction, while the other is perpendicular to it. The flow response in plane-strain compression of the ECAP processed samples revealed an anisotropic behavior, one loading direction systematically gave higher flow stresses. A strain path change parameter was calculated for the two deformation schemes, to justify this anisotropic behavior. Texture evolution, of the plane-strain-compressed samples, was measured, and a transition to the rolling texture was always evidenced. The evolution of the main ideal rolling-texture components obtained from such a combination of deformation schemes, ECAP and plane-strain compression, is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]