Zoltán Hegedűs

Inhomogeneous softening during annealing of ultrafine-grained silver processed by HPT

The softening in ultrafine-grained silver processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) was studied during annealing using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). Two separate exothermic peaks were observed in the DSC thermogram of the HPT-processed sample. It is shown that the first and the second peaks are related to the recrystallization of the middle volume and the surface regions of the HPT-processed disk, respectively. Therefore, a very inhomogeneous sandwich-like microstructure develops during annealing with a soft interior and hard surface layers. The lower thermal stability of the middle region appears to be related to the stronger twinning activity since the twinned volumes can act as nuclei for recrystallized grains. The higher twin-fault probability in the interior is attributed to the larger strain due to the outflow of material between the anvils of the HPT facility during quasi-constrained processing.

Effect of pre-aging on the microstructure and strength of supersaturated AlZnMg alloys processed by ECAP

This work is focused on the effect of the combination of natural aging and severe plastic deformation (SPD) produced by Equal-Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) on the microstructure and strength of supersaturated AlZnMg alloys. Following a solution heat-treatment and quenching into water at room temperature, samples were naturally aged for different time periods and then processed by ECAP. The microstructure and mechanical properties of these samples are described and discussed. This investigation leads to proposing an interesting application of ECAP for supersaturated alloys. Using the shear bands created by ECAP in only one pass and applying appropriate subsequent aging treatments, composite-like microstructures can be achieved in conventional age-hardenanble Al alloys.

The Effect of Thermomechanical Treatment on the Microstructure and the Mechanical Behavior of a Supersaturated Cu-Ag Alloy

Supersaturated Cu-3at.% Ag alloy was processed by cold rolling and short-time annealing in order to achieve a combination of high strength and good tensile ductility. After annealing of the rolled samples a heterogeneous solute atom distribution was developed due to the dissolution of nanosized Ag particles in some volumes of the matrix. In regions with higher solute content, the high dislocation density formed due to rolling was stabilized, while in other volumes the dislocation density decreased. The heterogeneous microstructure obtained after annealing exhibited a much higher ductility and only a slightly lower strength than in the as-rolled state.

The Influence of Impurity Content on Thermal Stability of Low Stacking Fault Energy Silver Processed by Severe Plastic Deformation

The effect of the impurity content on the evolution of the ultrafine-grained (UFG) microstructure in low stacking fault energy Ag and its stability at room and elevated temperatures were investigated. Samples of silver having high (99.995%) and somewhat lower (99.99%) purity levels were processed by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) at room temperature (RT) up to 16 passes. Although, the minimum grain size achieved by ECAP was ~200 nm for both series, the lattice defect structure was strongly influenced by the impurity content. In the samples processed by 4-16 passes of ECAP a self-annealing occurred during storage RT that was promoted by the higher twin boundary frequency. Both room-and high-temperature thermal stability of 99.99% purity Ag were much better due to the pinning effect of impurities. It was found that a large number of dislocation loops remained in the microstructure even after recrystallization at high temperatures.

Unique features of ultrafine-grained microstructures in materials having low stacking fault energy

The evolution of the microstructure during processing by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) in silver having extremely low stacking fault energy was studied up to 16 passes. It was shown that at high strains the contribution of twinning to deformation increased at the expense of dislocation-controlled processes. It was also found that during storage at room temperature (i.e. at the temperature of ECAP) there was a self-annealing of the severely deformed microstructure after 1 month and its degree was revealed to have a strong dependence on the number of passes.