Grain Refinement and Superplastic Deformation Behavior of Zn-Al Alloy

Abstract

Grain refinement and superplastic deformation behavior of Zn-Al alloys were investigated in this study. To obtain fine grain size in Zn-0.3Al alloys, rolling and equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) were conducted at temperatures from 40 to 160°C after casting and homogenization heat treatment. Material processing maps for Zn-0.3Al alloy were constructed from a series of compression tests conducted at temperatures from RT to 200°C and strain rates from 3×10 -2 to 10 1 s -1 . Superplasticity of ECAPed specimens were evaluated at the temperature of 100°C under the strain rate of 2×10 -4 s -1 . After ECAP of the Zn-0.3Al alloy, elongation was dramatically increased up to 500%. The effects of ECAP on the texture and anisotropy in the superplastic deformation bebavior were found to be negligible.