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Ultrafine-grained materials are attractive for achieving superplastic elongations provided the grains are reasonably stable at elevated temperatures. Since the strain rate in superplasticity varies inversely with the grain size raised to a power of two, a reduction in grain size to the submicrometer level leads to the occurrence of superplastic flow within the region of high strain rate superplasticity at strain rates >10 -2 s -1 . This paper tabulates and examines the various reports of superplasticity in ultrafine-grained materials. It is shown that these materials exhibit many characteristics similar to conventional superplastic alloys including strain rates that are consistent with the standard model for superplastic flow and the development of internal cavitation during the flow process.

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High-pressure torsion (HPT) is one of the major severe plastic deformation (SPD) procedures where bulk metals, in the shape of a disk, achieve exceptional grain refinement at ambient temperatures. HPT has been applied for the consolidation of metallic powders and the bonding of machining chips whereas there are very limited reports examining the application of HPT for the production of new metal systems and the formation of nanocomposites. Accordingly, this investigation was initiated to evaluate the potential for the formation of a metal matrix nanocomposite (MMNC) by processing two commercial metal disks of an Al-1050 alloy and a ZK60 magnesium alloy through HPT under 6.0 GPa for 20 turns at room temperature. Evolutions in microstructure, mechanical properties including hardness and plasticity and the tribological properties were examined in the MMNC region of the processed Al-Mg system. The significance of post-deformation annealing (PDA) at 573 K for 1 hour was investigated by the change in microstructure and the enhancement in mechanical properties and wear resistance of the HPT-processed MMNC. This study demonstrates the promising feasibility of using HPT to fabricate a wide range of hybrid MMNCs from simple metals and for applying PDA for further improvement of the essential mechanical and tribological properties in the synthesized alloy systems.

A CoCrFeNiMn high-entropy alloy (HEA) was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) under 6.0 GPa pressure up to 10 turns at room temperature. It is shown that there is a gradual evolution in hardness with increasing numbers of turns but full homogeneity is not achieved even after 10 turns. Microhardness measurements reveal that the material reaches a saturation hardness value of ~4.41 GPa and in this condition the microstructure shows exceptional grain refinement with a grain size of ~10 nm. An ultimate strength value of ~1.75 GPa and an elongation to fracture of ~4% were obtained in a sample processed for 5 turns. The nanostructured HEA was subjected to post-deformation annealing (PDA) at 473-1173 K and it is shown that the hardness increases slightly to 773 K due to precipitation and then decreases up to 1173 K due to a combination of recrystallization, grain growth and a dissolution of the precipitates. The formation of brittle precipitates, especially σ-phase, at 873 and 973 K significantly reduces the ductility. Short-term annealing for 10 min at 1073 K prevents grain growth and leads to a combination of high strength and good ductility including an ultimate tensile strength of ~830 MPa and an elongation to failure of ~65%.

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Disks of commercial Al-1050 and ZK60A alloys were stacked together and then processed by conventional high-pressure torsion (HPT) through 1 and 5 turns at room temperature to investigate the synthesis of an Al-Mg alloy system. Measurements of microhardness and observations of the microstructures and local compositions after processing through 5 turns revealed the formation of an ultrafine multi-layered structure in the central region of the disk but with an intermetallic b-Al 3 Mg 2 phase in the form of nano-layers in the nanostructured Al matrix near the edge of the disk. The activation energy for diffusion bonding of the Al and Mg phases was estimated and it is shown that this value is low and consistent with surface diffusion due to the very high density of vacancy-type defects introduced by HPT processing. The results demonstrate a significant potential for making use of HPT processing in the preparation of new alloy systems.