Influence of ECAP Routes on the Microstructure and Mechanical Properties of Hot Extruded 3003 Al Alloy

The microstructures and mechanical properties of unidirectional deformation structured Al alloy during ECAP with various deformation routes were investigated. In order to fabricate unidirectional deformation structure for Al alloy, hot extrusion was carried out. It was found that the deformation route A in ECAP routes is the dominant route for the grain refinement and strengthening. In deformation route A, the high strength ultra-fine grained Al alloy with a grain size of ~ 200 nm was obtained due to the accumulation of consecutive strain process. In contrast, the strength of ECAP’ed Al alloy produced via deformation route C was greatly increased after one pass because the grains were strained and cancelled each pass. By contrast, the equiaxed grains were obtained in deformation route BC because the sample was rotated 90 O in the same sense in each pass. The deformation route BC was superior to the deformation route C because the deformation route BC was more favorable than the deformation route C in the accumulation of consecutive strain. It is also found that unidirectional deformation structured Al alloy via hot extrusion shows similar grain refinement tendency with equiaxed structured Al alloy during ECAP processing.