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.

Manufacturing bulk nanostructured materials with least grain growth from initial powders is challenging because of the bottle neck of bottom-up methods using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. In this study, bottom-up type powder metallurgy processing and top-down type SPD (Severe Plastic Deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve both real density and grain refinement of metallic powders. ECAP (Equal Channel Angular Pressing), one of the most promising processes in SPD, was used for the powder consolidation method. For understanding the ECAP process, investigating the powder density as well as internal stress, strain distribution is crucial. We investigated the consolidation and plastic deformation of the metallic powders during ECAP using the finite element simulations. Almost independent behavior of powder densification in the entry channel and shear deformation in the main deformation zone was found by the finite element method. Effects of processing parameters on densification and density distributions were investigated.

Nanostructured metallic materials are synthesized by bottom-up processing which starts with powders for assembling bulk materials or top-down processing starting with a bulk solid. A representative bottom-up and top-down paths for bulk nanostructured/ultrafine grained metallic materials are powder consolidation and severe plastic deformation (SPD) methods, respectively. In this study, the bottom-up powder and top-down SPD approaches were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement without grain growth, which were considered as a bottle neck of the bottom-up method using conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. For the powder consolidation, equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), one of the most promising method in SPD, was used. The ECAP processing associated with stress developments was investigated. ECAP for powder consolidation were numerically analyzed using the finite element method (FEM) in conjunction with pressure and shear stress.

In the present research work was searched the influence of severe plastic deformation (SPD) realized by ECAP (equalchannel angular pressing) on structural, mechanical and plastic properties of IF (interstitial free) steel. For physical simulation ECAP process with right angle channels was used. The ECAP process was numerical simulated (namely its course of temperature, strain and stress fields and deformation forces) by FormFEM software, too.

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％.

Microstructural and mechanical characteristics of P/M 6061 Al alloy subjected to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) were investigated. The P/M 6061 Al alloy had an intial grain size of approximately . An equiaxed ultra-fine grained structure with the mean grain size of was obtained by four repetitive ECAP at 473 K. The microhardness of P/M 6061 Al alloy was drastically increased from about 40 Hv to 80 Hv by two repetitive ECAP at 373 K. However, the microhardness decreased with increasing ECAP temperature. The tensile stength of as-hot-pressed P/M 6061 Al alloy before ECAP was 95 MPa, whereas it increased to both 248 MPa after two repetitive ECAP at 373 K and 130 MPa after four repetitive ECAP at 473 K. The tensile properties of the ECAPed sample were compared with those of commercial cast 6061-O and 6061-T4 Al alloys.

The 6061 Al alloy based composites reinforced with 10 vol% SiC whiskers were prepared by powder metallurgy with the powders having the different sizes, i.e. < and> The composites were subjected to equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) at various conditions and the microstructural changes during ECAP were examined In the composites SiC whiskers were clustered and randomly aligned. The clusters were relatively well distributed in the composite with the smaller initial powder size. After ECAP, the clusters were aligned parallel to flow direction and became smaller. In addition, the shape of clusters was changed from irregular to round. The microstructure of the ECAPed samples were compared with those of the conventionally hot-extruded composites. The uniform microstructure and enhanced microhardness could be obtained by using the powders having the smaller size, decreasing ECAP temperature and repeating ECAP.