Development of ultrafine-grained aluminum tubes using severe plastic deformation process

Abstract

A unique process was developed to improve the mechanical properties of a circular tube. In this proposed process, a large amount of strain is applied to the wall of tube, leading to grain refinement in the material. In order to investigate characteristics of microstructural evolution such as the distribution of grain size and misorientation angle during the process, an EBSD OIM analysis was carried out. The analysis confirms that the proposed process can very effectively produce a circular tube with ultrafine-grains.