Dislocation study of ARMCO iron processed by ECAP

The aim of this work was to study the deformation behavior of an Armco iron after severe plastic deformation by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP). Particular attention was paid to predict the dislocation density by different approaches like the model proposed by Bergstrom. Experimental measures of dislocation density by different techniques are used in the discussion. Cylindrical samples of ARMCO iron (8mm of diameter, 60mm of length) were subjected to ECAP deformation using a die with an intersecting channel of Φ=90° and outer arc of curvature of ψ= 37° die. Samples were deformed for up to 16 ECAP passes following route Bc. The mechanical properties of the material were measured after each pass by tensile tests. The original grain size of the annealed iron (70 μm) was drastically reduced after ECAP reaching grain sizes close to 300nm after 16 passes.