Microstructure and texture of copper/niobium composites processed by ECAE

The structure refinement is a challenge for conductors used for the winding of resistive coils producing non-destructive pulsed magnetic fields over 80T. These nanocomposite conductors composed of a conducting multiscale Cu matrix embedding Nb reinforcing nanofilaments are usually manufactured by using a Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) process based on hot extrusion, accumulative cold drawing and bundling (ADB) steps [Thilly et al. Philos Mag A 82:925, 2002]. Equal-channel angular extrusion (ECAE) is investigated here as an alternative route since it may provide faster refinement to obtain the ultrafine structure needed for optimized electrical and mechanical properties of the conductors. Therefore, copper-niobium specimens obtained by hot extrusion were processed by ECAE at room temperature. The specific die of the ECAE tool used here is constituted by a round channel with three angles corresponding to a total equivalent strain of about 2.5. Deformed samples were examined by optical microscopy and characterized by hardness profiles and x-ray diffraction (texture pole figures). After one ECAE-pass, the shape of the samples is modified but no trace of damage appeared at the Cu-Nb interfaces. An increase of the hardness values localized in the copper matrix is revealed whereas the hardness of the niobium remains unchanged. Prior to ECAE, the hot extrusion process induced a fibre texture for both copper and niobium. Two fibre texture components were observed for copper: <111> and <200>. A single <110> fibre texture component is evidenced for the niobium. After ECAE a significant variation of the texture is observed in relation with the strong shear induced by this process.