Production of ultra-fine-grained aluminum plates by constrained groove pressing technique

One of the new methods of producing materials that have ultra-fine grains or grains of nanometer size is the method of severe plastic deformation (SPD). In this technique, by applying severe strains to the samples, the size of the grains is reduced to the nano scale, and as a result, the mechanical properties of the metal (including the yield strength and resistance to wear and abrasion) improve considerably. In this research, the effect of the constrained groove pressing process (as one of the SPD methods) on aluminum plates was studied. In this method, two dies (one with asymmetrical grooves, and the other, flat) were used for pressing the aluminum samples. With respect to the die's geometry, at each pressing run, a shear strain equal to 0.58 is applied to some parts of the sample. By repeating the pressing operation, a large and significant amount of plastic strain is applied throughout the sample. In the present investigation, tensile and micro-hardness tests were employed to determine the effect of this process on the mechanical properties of the samples. The results showed that, by increasing the number of pressing steps, hardness and strength of the samples increase, and the elongation ability diminishes. Of course, at higher numbers of pressing steps, a little decrease in strength was observed in the samples. Complete explanations regarding this decrease have been given in the text of the article.