In this study, the bottom-up powder metallurgy and the top-down severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques for manufacturing bulk nanomaterials were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement without grain growth of rapidly solidified Al-20 wt% Si alloy powders during consolidation processing. Continuous equal channel multi-angular processing (C-ECMAP) was proposed to improve low productivity of conventional ECAP, one of the most promising method in SPD. As a powder consolidation method, C-ECMAP was employed. A wide range of experimental studies were carried out for characterizing mechanical properties and microstructures of the ECMAP processed materials. It was found that effective properties of high strength and full density maintaining nanoscale microstructure are achieved. The proposed SPD processing of powder materials can be a good method to achieve fully density and nanostructured materials.

In recent years, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) has been the subject of intensive study due to its capability of producing fully dense samples having a ultrafine grain size. In this paper, the ECAP process was applied to metallic powders in order to achieve both powder consolidation and grain refinement. In the ECAP process for solid and powder metals, knowledge of the internal stress, strain and strain rate distribution is fundamental to the determination of the optimum process conditions for a given material. The properties of the ECAP processed solid and powder materials are strongly dependent on the shear plastic deformation behavior during ECAP, which is controlled mainly by die geometry, material properties, and process conditions. In this study, we investigated the consolidation, plastic deformation and microstructure evolution behaviour of the powder compact during ECAP.

In this study, bottom-up type powder processing and top-down type SPD (severe plastic deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement of Al-20 wt% Si powders without grain growth, which was considered as a bottle neck of the bottom-up method using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. ECAP (Equal channel angular pressing), one of the most promising method in SPD, was used for the powder consolidation. The powder ECAP processing with 1, 2, 4 and 8 passes was conducted for 10 and 20 It was found by microhardness, compression tests and micro-structure characterization that high mechanical strength could be achieved effectively as a result of the well bonded powder contact surface during ECAP process. The SPD processing of powders is a viable method to achieve both fully density and nanostructured materials.

In this paper processing and mechanical properties of Al-20 wt％ Si alloy was studied. A bulk form of Al-20Si alloy was prepared by gas atomizing powders having the powder size of 106-145 and powder extrusion. The powder extrudate was subsequently equal channel angular pressed up to 8 passes in order to refine grain and Si particle. The microstructure of the gas atomized powders, powder extrudates and equal channel angular pressed samples were investigated using a scanning electron microscope and X-ray diffraction. The mechanical properties of the bulk sample were measured by compressive tests and a micro Victors hardness test. Equal channel angular pressing was found to be effective in matrix grain and Si particle refinement, which enhanced the strength and hardness of the Al-2OSi alloy without deteriorating ductility in the range of experimental strain of 30％.