In this review, we focus on the saturation microstructure that evolves during severe plastic deformation (SPD). These nanocrystalline or ultrafine-grained microstructures consist predominantly of high-angle boundaries, although low-angle boundaries are also present. Deformation temperature, alloying, and strain path are the dominant factors controlling the saturation grain size in single-phase materials. The saturation grain size decreases significantly with decreasing deformation temperature, although the dependency is stronger at medium homologous temperatures and less in the low-temperature regime. The saturation microstructure is sensitive to strain rate at medium temperatures and less so at low temperatures. The addition of alloying elements to pure metals also reduces the saturation grain size. The results indicate that grain boundary migration is the dominant process responsible for the limitation in refinement by SPD. Therefore, second-phase particles of the nanometer scale can stabilize even finer microstructures. This mechanism of stabilization of the microstructure is an effective tool for overcoming the limit in refinement of single-phase materials by SPD. The improved thermal stability of the obtained nanostructures is another benefit of the introduction of second-phase particles.

The effect of the different processing parameters on the refinement during severe plastic deformation is evaluated. The attention is focused to very high strains, where saturation in the structural refinement is observed. The single phase metals and alloys show a relatively uniform behaviour, with increasing strain the size of structural elements decreases and reaches saturation between equivalent strains of 5 to 50. The resulting ultra fine or nanostructured granular microstructure contains mainly high angle grain boundaries. Alloying, the temperature, and the strain path are the most important parameters controlling the saturation in the structural refinement. The behavior of the dual and multiphase materials during SPD is more complex, it varies from simple homogenisation of the phase distribution, fragmentation of one phase to disintegration and supersaturation of the phases. Severe plastic deformation of these types of materials offers the potential for the production of new types of materials with a nanocrystalline or a nanocomposite structure for a broad range of industrial applications.

The improvements in the design of the HPT tools lead to a well defined torsion deformation and permits, therefore, a comparison with other SPD-techniques. The design of the tools, the advantages and disadvantages of HPT, as well as the limitation in the sample size are discussed.

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High pressure torsion (HPT) deformation enables the grain refinement of bulk materials until a saturation region is reached where no further microstructural refinement can be observed. The influence of deformation temperature, alloying and strain rate on the saturation region was examined by using pure aluminum, an Al-1 mass%Mg alloy and an Al-3 mass%Mg alloy. The deformation temperature was varied between À196 C and 450 C. Both, temperature and alloying exhibit a pronounced influence on the saturation microstructure. The measurements reveal either a rate independent behavior of the structural evolution at low temperatures and a rate dependent behavior of the structural evolution at high temperatures. Two different processes are proposed to be the reason for the saturation at low and high homologous temperatures.