ABSTRACT

Equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) has over the years been used as a severe plastic deformation method to refine the grains and improve the strength of various metals. Even though this has been largely successful, research over the years has tried to increase the amount of strain induced in the materials used during this process so as to further increase the strength. In this research, an additional 30o twist angle was incorporated into the outlet channel of one of the ECAP dies used to refine the AlMg3 grains.

After hardness measurements were taken, this additional twist angle was observed to have induced more strain in the AlMg3, causing the AlMg3 to have higher hardness values. Optical micrographs and electron back-scattered diffraction results showed a more strained microstructure, more refined grains and many more grain boundaries in the AlMg3 microstructure after the ECAP process with 30o twist angle.