Microstructure Evolution of AA1070 Aluminum Alloy Processed by Micro/Meso-Scale Equal Channel Angular Pressing

The Micro/meso-forming of commercially pure aluminum, AA1070, processed at room temperature by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) with a die channel angle of 90° through 4 deformation passes has been conducted. Microstructure features, such as grain size, misorientation angle distributions and the developed texture during the four deformation passes of micro/meso-ECAP have been investigated by Electron backscattering diffraction (EBSD) technique. Then, hardness measurements over the cross-section of the processed samples were correlated with the EBSD analysis. EBSD scans revealed that extended shear bands are formed and represent the microstructural feature induced during micro/meso-forming. Whereas, a non-uniform grain structure consisting of intensive low-angle grain boundaries was obtained in the first pass, a uniform ultrafine-grained structure of high-angle grain boundaries (in the range of 1–2 μm) was achieved at the fourth pass. Consequently, a significant improvement in the hardness value to 65.3%, with respect to the starting material, was achieved due to the enhancement of the fine grain structure. The texture analysis exhibited that the high plastic shear strain associated with micro/meso-scale ECAP was capable to develop a weak texture in the flow plane compared to the starting texture.