Papers by Author: Aicha Loucif

Abstract: The evolution of the recrystallization microstructure at different temperatures and the related change in the microhardness were studied in an Al-6061 alloy after 2 turns of high-pressure torsion (HPT) by means of Vickers microhardness and EBSD analysis. The corresponding results show that HPT processing introduces a significant grain size refinement for the deformed state by comparison with the 150 µm grain size in the initial material. The microstructure after annealing at 200°C is relatively close to the as-processed one and the distribution of misorientation angles remains essentially unchanged. However, significant microstructural changes are produced with increasing annealing temperature and at the highest temperature (400°C) there is an abnormal grain growth. The variation of Vickers microhardness (Hv) after the different annealing treatments show a gradual decrease when the temperature increases.

Abstract: This investigation uses electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) to study the development of microtexture with increasing deformation in an AlMgSi alloy having an initial grain size of about 150 µm subjected to high pressure torsion (HPT) up to a total of 5 turns. An homogeneous microstructure was achieved throughout the disc sample at high strains with the formation of ultra-fine grains. Observations based on orientation distribution function (ODF) calculation reveals the presence of the torsion texture components often reported in the literature for f.c.c. materials. In particular, the C {001}<110> component was found to be dominant. Furthermore, no significant change in the texture sharpness was observed by increasing the strain.

Abstract: The processing of bulk metals through the application of severe plastic deformation provides the opportunity for introducing significant grain refinement into bulk solids. In the present investigation, an aluminum alloy (Al-6061) was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) at room temperature under an applied pressure of 6.0 GPa up to a total of 5 turns. Detailed measurements after processing revealed the occurrence of continuous grain refinement and material strengthening with increasing imposed strain. The average grain size of the alloy was reduced from ~150 m to a grain size in the range of ~500 nm through processing by HPT. Although there was a difference in the average grain size of samples processed to different levels of imposed strain, careful inspection showed that the structures became similar after annealing at 250°C for 5 min. This suggests that the additional grain refinement introduced at large amounts of deformations is less stable at high temperatures. The results of this investigation, including the distributions of the grain sizes after annealing, are consistent with the predictions of a model based on the occurrence of continuous recrystallization in aluminum alloys having fine grain structures, large fractions of high-angle grain boundaries and where there is a large amount of deformation.