Developing superplasticity and a deformation mechanism map for the Zn–Al eutectoid alloy processed by high-pressure torsion

A Zn–22% Al eutectoid alloy was processed by high-pressure torsion (HPT) for 1, 3 and 5 turns at room temperature to produce an ultrafine grain size of ∼350 nm. Tensile testing at a temperature of 473 K gave excellent superplastic properties with elongations to failure up to a maximum of 1800% at an imposed strain rate of 1.0 × 10−1 s−1: this is within the range of high strain rate superplasticity and represents the highest elongation recorded to date for a specimen processed by HPT. It is shown that the experimental data are in excellent agreement with a deformation mechanism map constructed for a temperature of 473 K.

► A Zn–Al alloy was processed by HPT to reduce the grain size to 350 nm.
► Excellent superplastic properties were achieved when testing at 473 K.
► The results are consistent with a deformation mechanism map for 473 K.