Nano grained AZ31 alloy achieved by equal channel angular rolling process

Equal channel angular rolling (ECAR) is a severe plastic deformation process which is carried out on large, thin sheets. The grain size could be significantly decreased by this process. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the possibility of grain refinement of AZ31 magnesium alloy sheet by this process to nanometer. The effect of the number of ECAR passes on texture evolution of AZ31 magnesium alloy was investigated. ECAR temperature was controlled to maximize the grain refinement efficiency along with preventing cracking. The initial microstructure of as-received AZ31 sheet showed an average grain size of about 21 μm. The amount of grain refinement increased with increasing the pass number. After 10 passes of the process, significant grain refinement occurred and the field emission scanning electron microscopic (FESEM) micrographs showed that the size of grains were decreased significantly to about 14–70 nm. These grains were formed at the grain boundaries and inside some of the previous larger micrometer grains. Observation of optical microstructures and X-ray diffraction patterns (XRD) showed the formation of twins after ECAR process. Micro-hardness of material was studied at room temperature. There was a continuous enhancement of hardness by increasing the pass number of ECAR process. At the 8th pass, hardness values increased by 53%. At final passes hardness reduced slightly, which was attributed to saturation of strain in high number of passes.