To explore the effect of strain rate ε on the high temperature deformation characteristics of ultrafine-grained materials, the deformation and damage features as well as microstructures of ECAP-treated pure Al at different temperatures T and strain ratesε were systematically studied through compression tests and microscopic observations. The increase in ε eliminates strain softening at T≤473 K, and largely enhances the yield strength and flow stress at 473?573 K. The shear deformation dominates the plastic deformation of ECAP-treated Al. Many cracks along shear bands (SBs) are formed at T≥473 K and secondary SBs basically disappear at 1×10?3 s?1; however, at 1×10?2 s?1, cracks are only observed at temperature below 473 K, and secondary SBs become clearer at T≥473 K. The microstructures of ECAP-treated Al mainly consist of sub-grains (SGs). The increase in ε inhibits the SG growth, thus leading to the increases both in yield strength and flow stress at high temperatures.
To explore the influence of cyclic pre-deformation on the mechanical behavior of ultrafine-grained（UFG）materials with a high stacking fault energy（SFE）,UFG Al processed by equal-channel angular pressing（ECAP）was selected as a target material and its tensile behavior at different pre-cyclic levels D（D=N_i/N_f,where N_i and N_f are the applied cycles and fatigue life at a constant stress amplitude of 50 MPa,respectively）along with the corresponding microstructures and deformation features were systematically studied.The cyclic pre-deformation treatment on the ECAPed UFG Al led to a decrease in flow stress,and a stress quasi-plateau stage was observed after yielding for all of the different-state UFG Al samples.The yield strengths_（YS）,ultimate tensile strengths_（UTS）,and uniform straineexhibited a strong dependence on D when D≤20%;however,when D was in the range from 20%to 50%,no obvious change in mechanical properties was observed.The micro-mechanism for the effect of cyclic pre-deformation on the tensile properties of the ECAPed UFG Al was revealed and compared with that of ECAPed UFG Cu through the observations of deformation features and microstructures.
Ying YanLi-jia ChenGuo-qiang ZhangDong HanXiao-wu Li
