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a b s t r a c tDetailed experimental data on the behavior of textured sheet metals under compressive loading is important to describe their tension-compression asymmetry. This is particularly needed for materials that exhibit a strength-differential effect, or in cases where the Bauschinger effect occurs. So far, there is no systematic work describing the third quadrant in the 2D stress space under biaxial compressive loading. This paper presents a new device for biaxial, compressive in-plane testing of thin sheets. Biaxial and uniaxial compression experiments are carried out in the strain controlled device, analyzing the behavior of deep drawing steel sheets with and without skin-pass treatment. Moreover, in order to allow for the experimental description of the yield surfaces, biaxial tensile tests are performed. Detailed numerical validations and experimental strain analysis both for the new specimen for biaxial compressive testing and for the cruciform specimen for biaxial tensile testing show that reasonably homogeneous strain distributions can be achieved. The combined experimental and numerical method presented here allows to evaluate the tension-compression asymmetry of thin sheet materials. The results for the skin-passed condition clearly exhibit a tension-compression asymmetry, which highlights the necessity of biaxial compression tests already in the as-received material condition. The biaxial compression test opens a pathway to a more detailed analysis of the flow behavior of thin sheets under biaxial compression loading.

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Future applications of ultrafine-grained, high performance materials produced by equalchannel angular pressing (ECAP) will most likely require processing on an industrial scale. There is a need for detailed microstructural and mechanical characterisation of large-scale, ECAP-processed billets. In the present study, we examine the microstructure and mechanical properties as a function of location and orientation within large (50 x 50 x 300 mm³) billets of an Al-6060 alloy produced by ECAP (90° channel angle) with different magnitudes of backpressure. The internal deformation is analysed using a grid-line method on split billets. Hardness is recorded in longitudinal and crosssectional planes. In order to further characterise the local, post-ECAP mechanical properties, tensile tests in different layers are performed. Moreover, low-voltage scanning transmission electron microscopy observations highlight relevant microstructural features. We find that the homogeneity and anisotropy of mechanical properties within the billets depend significantly on the geometry of the shear zone. We demonstrate that deformation gradients can be reduced considerably by increasing the backpressure: The opening-angle of the fan-shaped shear zone is reduced from ψ ≈ 20 ° to ψ ≈ 7 ° when the backpressure is increased from 0 to 150 MPa. Backpressures of 150 MPa result in excellent homogeneity, with a relative variation of tensile mechanical properties of less than 7 %. Our investigation demonstrates that ECAP is suitable for processing homogenous, high performance materials on a large scale, paving the way for advanced industrial applications.

Fatigue behaviour and mechanical properties of peak-aged AA6063T6 with ultra-fine grain size, produced by equal channel angular extrusion, were evaluated with special emphasis on the microstructure before and after cyclic loading. The strength significantly increased with grain size reduction and is described by an exponential power-law constitutive relationship. A remarkable enhancement of fatigue life compared to commercial AA6063T6 with coarse grains was found in the high-cycle regime after the first two extrusions. Further extrusions eliminated this improvement. It is shown that the optimum fatigue performance correlates very well with the minimum tensile ductility. Electron backscatter diffraction revealed that the material behaviour can basically be attributed to the grain boundary characteristics. Low grain boundary misorientation angles yield the best fatigue performance in the ultrafine-grained microstructure.

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