Micro-deformation behavior in micro-compression with high-purity aluminum processed by ECAP

Ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials have a potential for applications in micro-forming since grain size appears to be the dominant factor which determines the limiting size of the geometrical features. In this research, high-purity Al was processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature through 1-8 passes. Analysis shows that processing by ECAP produces a UFG structure with a grain size of ~1.3 μm and with microhardness and microstructural homogeneity. Micro-compression testing was carried out with different specimen dimensions using the annealed sample and after ECAP processing through 1-8 passes. The results show the flow stress increases significantly after ECAP processing by comparison with the annealed material. The flow stress generally reaches a maximum value after 2 passes which is consistent with the results of microhardness. The flow stress decreases with decreasing specimen diameter from 4 mm to 1 mm which demonstrates that size effects also exist in the ultrafine-grained materials. However, the deformation mechanism in ultrafine-grained pure Al changes from strain strengthening to softening by dynamic recovery by comparison with the annealed material.