Grain refinement in CuCrZr by SPD processing

CuCrZr alloys exhibit relatively high strength (due to precipitation hardening) and high thermal and electrical conductivity which make them attractive for variety of applications, e.g. as heat sinks and electrodes. In the present study, a CuCrZr alloy was subjected to severe plastic deformation (SPD) to increase its strength by grain refinement without modification of the chemical composition. A combination of the multi-pass equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) followed by cumulative hydrostatic extrusion (HE) was applied with a total true strain of 11.5. The microstructure of SPD samples was evaluated by transmission and scanning electron .microscopy The, grain sizes were quantitatively described. The resulting mechancial properties were determined intensile tests and via microhardness measurements. The results show that the applied SPD route, combining ECAP and HE, leads to high grain size refinement accompined by high increase of strength. (C) WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim