The production of refined grain materials by equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) method has been the subject of numerous research programs over the past decades. In this study, the mechanical properties of commercially Al-6063 alloy deformed through ECAE process are investigated. The extrusion is performed up to six passes at a constant speed of 30 mm/min and a temperature of 200 °C. The grain size of the material reduced from 45to 2.8 μm after six passes. The extruded specimens were tested under quasi-static, medium, and high strain rate loadings using various testing machines. The results indicated that the tensile yield stress (YS) and the ultimate tensile strength (UTS) of the extruded specimens increased significantly after five passes of the ECAE process. The major improvement occurred after the first pass. For the subsequent passes, the properties kept improving but at lower rates. It was also shown that the tensile properties of the processed specimens are not influenced by the strain rate.
The purpose of this investigation was to refine the grains of annealed 6063 aluminum alloy and to improve its yield stress and ultimate strength. This was accomplished via the equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) process at a temperature of 200°C using route A, with a constant ram speed of 30 mm/min through a die angle of 90° between the die channels for as many as 6 passes. The experiments were conducted on an Avery universal testing machine. The results showed that the grain diameter decreased from 45 µm to 2.8 µm after 6 extrusion passes. The results also indicated that the major improvement in fatigue resistance occurred after the first pass. The subsequent passes improved the fatigue life but at a considerably lower rate. A maximum increase of 1100% in the case of low applied stresses and an approximately 2200% increase in fatigue resistance in the case of high applied stresses were observed after 5 passes. The improvement of fatigue resistance is presumed to be due to (1) a reduction in the size and the number of Si crystals with increasing number of ECAE passes, (2) the aggregation of Cu during the ECAE process, (3) the formation and growth of CuAl 2 grains, and (4) grain refinement of the Al−6063 alloy during the ECAE process.
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