Structure uniformity and limits of grain refinement of high purity aluminum during multi-directional forging process at room temperature

The effect of forging passes on the refinement of high purity aluminum during multi-forging was investigated. The attention was focused on the structure uniformity due to deformation uniformity and the grain refinement limitation with very high strains. The results show that the fine grain zone in the center of sample expands gradually with the increase of forging passes. When the forging passes reach 6, an X-shape fine grain zone is initially formed. With a further increase of the passes, this X-shape zone tends to spread the whole sample. Limitation in the structural refinement is observed with increasing strains during multi-forging process at the room temperature. The grains size in the center is refined to a certain size (110 mu m) as forging passes reach 12, and there is no further grain refinement in the center with increasing the forging passes to 24. However, the size of the coarse grains near the surface is continuously decreased with increasing the forging passes to 24.