The effect of cryogenic temperature and change in deformation mode on the limiting grain size in a severely deformed dilute aluminium alloy

With the aim of investigating the factors that limit the production of true nanograined materials by cryogenic severe deformation, the grain structures formed in an Al–0.1%Mg alloy have been studied in plane strain compression at temperatures down to 77 K, following prior severe plastic deformation (SPD) by equal channel angular extrusion. Changing the deformation mode alone had little effect on increasing the rate of grain refinement. At the minimum cryogenic temperature (77 K) the samples still contained 30% low angle boundaries and a nanoscale high-angle boundary (HAB) spacing was only obtained in one dimension. At high strains a steady-state minimum HAB spacing was approached, irrespective of the temperature, where the rate of grain refinement stagnated. It is shown that the minimum grain size achievable in SPD is limited by a balance between the rate of compression of the HAB spacing and dynamic grain coarsening. At low temperatures this is controlled by abnormally high boundary migration rates, which are difficult to explain with existing theories of grain boundary mobility. 2007 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.