Experimental Investigation on Severe Plastic Deformation of AA7075 Alloy at Elevated Temperature

Abstract

Lightweight alloys play a significant role in different manufacturing applications in the aerospace, automobile, and medical industries. Among other light alloys, 7075 aluminum alloy (AA7075) is widely utilized due to its excellent mechanical strength, low weight to strength ratio, and good corrosion resistance. One of the prominent ways to improve the alloy’s properties is grain refinement, which is easily accomplished by severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques. Among different SPD techniques, constrained groove pressing (CGP) is one of the prominent SPD techniques, particularly for the sheet/plate material. In this work, AA7075 alloy was subjected to the CGP process at 300°C with various heat treatments. The repetitive shear. Grain refinement of CGPed samples was observed through an optical microscope to measure the average grain size of the specimen. SEM and XRD were used to investigate the precipitation and crystallography of the processed alloy. Results indicate that the heat treatment significantly affects grain growth as precipitates are segregated along grain boundaries.