Achieving both powder consolidation and grain refinement for bulk nanostructured materials by equal-channel angular pressing

Manufacturing bulk nanostructured materials with least grain growth from initial powders is challenging because of the bottle neck of bottom-up methods using the conventional powder metallurgy of compaction and sintering. In this study, bottom-up type powder metallurgy processing and top-down type SPD (Severe Plastic Deformation) approaches were combined in order to achieve both full density and grain refinement of metallic powders. ECAP (Equal-Channel Angular Pressing), one of the most promising processes in SPD, was used for the powder consolidation method. For understanding the ECAP process, investigating the powder density as well as internal stress, strain and strain rate distribution is crucial. We investigated the consolidation and plastic deformation of the metallic powders during ECAP using the finite element simulations. Almost independent behavior of powder densification in the entry channel and shear deformation in the main deformation zone was found by the finite element method in conjunction with a pressure dependent material yield model. Effects of processing parameters on densification and density distributions were investigated.