Effect of equal-channel angular pressing on room temperature superplasticity of quasi-single phase Zn-0.3Al alloy

Quasi-single phase (dilute) Zn-0.3Al alloy was subjected to severe plastic deformation via equal-channel angular extrusion/pressing (ECAE/P), and the effects of ECAP on its room temperature (RT) and high strain rate (HSR) superplasticity and deformation mechanism were investigated. Multi-pass ECAP may refine the coarse-grained microstructure into the fine grained (FG) one. The grain size of Zn-matrix phase decreased down to 2.0 µm after ECAP. Many spherical Al-rich precipitates decomposed and homogeneously distributed inside the matrix phase. They are ultrafine grained (UFG) α-particles with the grain sizes ranging from 50 nm to ∼200 nm. This special microstructure having FG and UFG micro-constituents brought about an improvement in RT superplasticity even at HSRs. While multi-pass ECAP decreased flow stress of the alloy, its elongation to failure increased substantially depending on the initial strain rates. The maximum elongation was 1000% at a low strain rate of 10−4 s−1, and 350% elongation was achieved at a high strain rate of 10−2 s−1. Grain boundary sliding (GBS) was found to be the main deformation mechanism in region-II as the optimum superplastic region.