Materials Science Forum, Vol.503-504, 83-88, 2006
An investigation of cavitation in the tensile testing of a spray-cast aluminum alloy processed by ECAP
A commercial aluminum 7034 alloy, produced by spray casting and having an initial grain size of similar to 2.1 mu m, was subjected to equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) through six passes at 473 K. In the as-pressed condition, the microstructure was reasonably homogeneous and the grain size was reduced to an ultrafine grain size of similar to 0.3 mu m. This alloy contains MgZn2 and Al3Zr precipitates which restrict grain growth. In tensile testing at 673 K after processing by ECAP, an elongation of > 1000% was achieved at a strain rate of 1.0 x 10(-2) s(-1) corresponding to high strain rate superplasticity. Quantitative cavity measurements were conducted on the specimens after tensile testing for both the as-received condition and after ECAP. These measurements reveal a significant number of small cavities in the samples and especially in the sample that exhibited a very high elongation. This paper describes the morphology of cavity development in the spray-cast aluminum alloy in both the as-received and as-pressed condition.