Grain refinement in an AlEr alloy during accumulative continuous extrusion forming

• Accumulative continuous extrusion forming can product various cross sections of wire with a refined grain structure.
• Microstructure of Al–Er alloy during accumulative continuous extrusion forming was investigated.
• Nanoparticles Al3Er promoted grain refinement during accumulative continuous extrusion forming process.

The grain of an Al0.2Er alloy (wt%) was refined by accumulative continuous extrusion forming (ACEF). Microstructure of the AlEr alloy subjected to ACEF was investigated through electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results revealed that the formation of ultra-fine grains results from a type of continuous dynamic recrystallization (CDRX) that is induced by large strains. With the accumulation of strain, LAGBs gradually introduced and transformed into HAGBs, which leads to an increase in the average orientation angle. The micro-grain alloy is refined through repeated passes of the continuous extrusion forming process and the average grain size of the Al0.2Er (wt%) alloy decreased from 26.01 μm to 1.3 μm in four passes. The Al0.2Er (wt%) alloy had a smaller average grain size than that of pure aluminum. The formation of precipitates in AlEr alloy can stimulate the nucleation of CDRX by increasing the local strain energy and slow the growth of recrystallization grains by limiting grain boundary migration that causing grain refinement.