Mechanical properties, microstructure and texture of single pass equal channel angular pressed 1050, 5083, 6082 and 7010 aluminum alloys with different dies

Four important commercial aluminum alloys, namely 1050, 5083, 6082 and 7010AA are processed through a single pass via two equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) dies with different geometries (die angles of 90 degrees and 120 degrees). Electron back scattered diffraction (EBSD) is applied on the flow plane of the processed samples. Large scans with a step size of 7 mu m for grain size distribution and texture measurements, as well as small scans with a step size of 0.1 mu m for determination of cell size distribution, were performed. Hardness and simple compression are employed to evaluate the mechanical properties of the ECAP processed samples. Shear bands in the ECAP processed 7010AA was a major feature that led to failure in all samples subjected to further simple compression. The hardness as well as the stress-strain behavior was similar in the ECAP processed 6082 and 5083AA. The die geometry and the strain involved in the single pass influenced the overall texture intensity developed in the wrought alloys (1050 and 5083AA) and had minimal influence on the texture intensity of the heat treatable alloys (6082 and 7010AA). Low angle grain boundaries dominated the microstructure of all alloys for all testing conditions. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.