Deformation mechanism of Zr702 processed by equal channel angular pressing

Commercial purity zirconium (Zr702) was deformed by equal channel angular (ECA) pressing up to eight passes, and the resulting microstructure and texture were studied by electron backscattered diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and X-ray diffraction. The most prominent feature of the substructure was the dislocation cell blocks (CBs), indicating that the dislocation slip rather than twinning was the main mechanism of deformation. With two passes of ECA pressing, pancake-shape grains of 0.25 mu m in thickness were obtained. The grain refinement achieved by the ECA pressing was attributed to the evolution of low-angle geometrically necessary boundaries (GNBs) into high-angle grain boundaries (HAGBs) during accumulation of strain by repeated pressing. The texture characteristics were such that a shear texture was predominant in the single-pass specimen, whereas a high-strain rolling texture became apparent in the specimens repeatedly pressed.