Thermal stability and superplastic behaviour of an Al-Mg-Sc alloy processed by ECAP and HPT at different temperatures

An Al-3%Mg-0.2%Sc alloy was processed by ECAP and HPT at different temperatures. Afterwards, samples subjected to 10 turns of HPT at 300 and 450 K, 8 passes of ECAP at 300 K and 10 passes of ECAP at 600 K were annealed for 1 hour at 523 K and their mechanical properties and microstructure were examined using microhardness measurements and EBSD analysis. In addition, tensile specimens with similar dimensions were machined from the HPT and ECAP-processed materials and further tensile tested at 523 K. The results demonstrate that the Al alloy processed by HPT at 450 K exhibits higher microhardness values (~138 Hv) and a smaller average grain size (~0.28 μm) after annealing at 523 K among all SPD processing conditions. Accordingly, the material subjected to HPT at an elevated temperature displays superior superplastic properties such that an elongation of ~1020 % was attained after testing at 523 K at 1.0 × 10 s. Furthermore, detailed EBSD analysis revealed a significant fraction of low-angle grain boundaries (LAGBs > 33 %) in the ECAP-processed material after annealing which may be responsible for the inferior superplastic behaviour by comparison with the HPT-processed samples (LAGBs < 13 %) tested at 523 K.