Grain Refinement in Pure Aluminum Severely Deformed by Equal Channel Angular Extrusion via Extended Processing Routes

AA1060 pure aluminum billets were processed by eight passes of equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) using 90 and 120 deg dies via processing routes characterized by an inter-pass billet rotation angle (χ) varying from 0 to 180 deg. The grain refinement efficiencies achieved in the different processing conditions were investigated by comparing misorientation and grain size in the deformed samples measured by electron back-scatter diffraction. The results reveal an overall decrease of grain refinement efficiency with an increase of χ for both dies. This trend corroborates the general observations in various face-centered cubic metals processed using a 120 deg die and can be satisfactorily explained by correlating the relative grain refinement efficiency to the relative significance of newly activated slip systems at pass-to-pass transitions. For ECAE with the 90 deg die, the route-dependency of grain refinement found in the AA1060 samples contradicts some of the observations in the literature, and the main discrepancies are located for routes with χ = 0 to 90 deg. Comparison of the present results with those of pure copper processed under similar conditions further reveals that these discrepancies could be mainly ascribed to differences in the characteristics of the materials, and that it is irrational to simply claim the route with χ = 0 or 90 deg as the optimal route without necessary experimental validations for a specific material.