Different behavior of alpha and beta phases in a Low Stacking Fault Energy copper alloy under severe plastic deformation

In this research, two phase brass alloy as one of the most important copper base alloys was processed by equal channel angular pressing as a severe plastic deformation process. The process was performed at 350 °C in route C up to 6 passes. Microstructural study showed that discontinuous recrystallization initiated at the first pass in the alpha phase. Recrystallization fraction enhanced by increasing the amount of strain and grain size decreased to less than one micron after the fifth and sixth passes. Investigations of beta phase showed that recrystallization in this phase began after the third pass and enhanced with increasing the number of passes. Separate investigation of macro-texture for two phases of alpha and beta well proved the different deformation behavior in both phases. Furthermore, it was observed that Goss, Rotated Goss and Rotated cube texture components were dominant for alpha phase, and cube and {112} texture components were dominant for beta phase that had a direct impact on the results of mechanical properties. Micro-hardness and tensile test were used in order to study the mechanical properties of the alloy. The results indicated a massive increase in micro-hardness and tensile strength after the process. Also, total elongation in the processed specimens was higher than expectations in a manner that after the final pass, it reached more than 80% which was only approximately 35% less than the primary anneal specimen.