Severe plastic deformation of a commercial aluminium-lithium alloy (AA8090) by equal channel angular pressing

The enhanced mechanical properties of crystalline materials are linked to very small grain sizes. The AA8090 is a commercial aluminium lithium alloy is referred in the metallurgical literature by its superplastic behavior linked as well to nano-grains as obtained by ECAP. On this research-work in progress, the 8090 aluminium alloy is studied after being processed in a 400 kN ECAE press up to nine passes through a 90 degrees angle-die at 150 degrees C following Route A (constant path) at a processing speed of 10 mm/min. The room temperature mechanical properties of the extruded alloy are investigated through hardness measurements and tensile tests. Elastic measurements have been carried out by means of nanoindentation and ultrasonic testing, showing that both texture and nanostructuration of the processed alloy influence on the elastic constant of the processed material. In order to understand the mechanisms involved in the SPD-ECAP process, microstructural characterisation of the alloy has been carried out using different high resolution techniques such as Transmission Electron and Atomic Force Microscopy. TEM results have also been used in order to evaluate grain size evolution. From this analysis it is possible to see that after 4 passages the initial grains have already a high degree of dislocations. Among the characterisation techniques, AFM in the surface potential mode has been used to evaluate discontinuities in the matrix and /or decohesion between matrix and precipitates. After nine ECAP passages, no signs of decohesion at the interface have been observed neither using FEG-SEM nor using AFM.