Equal channel angular extrusion of semicircular AA 5083 covered with copper casing

The microstructural evolution and mechanical behaviour of semicircular AA 5083 billets subjected to equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE), without and with copper casing (CC), are investigated in this work. The semicircular billets, circumferentially covered with and without CC, are extruded up to three passes in route A at room temperature. Even the coarse grain structure of the initial material is significantly refined, the microcracks and the structural defects were observed in the billets extruded without CC due to non-uniform strain distribution. The use of CC on the circumference of the semicircular billets reduces the dead zone effect on the structural homogeneity and minimises the formation of microcracks on the outer periphery of the extruded material. The uniform distribution of the effective strain imposed on the billets ECAE’d with CC enhances the development of equi-axed ultrafine grains at low pressing loads. The newly formed ultrafine grains with a size of few hundreds of nanometres significantly increase the mechanical properties of the ECAE’d AA 5083 with the CC. The obtained results were in good agreement with the earlier reports in which ECAE was carried with back pressure arrangement.