Abstract
Magnesium and its alloys have play an strategic role in many applications like aerospace, automobile, nuclear, electrical and structural engineering due to its strength to weight ratio is very low when compared to aluminum, Titanium and steel. In the present work, AZ61 wrought magnesium alloy was processed by using Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) at three different temperatures of 483 K, 523 K and 573 K using up to four ECAP passes. A microstructural study was conducted by measuring the average grain size after each pass, for the three different processing temperatures. The mechanical properties of the processed samples were noted to improve due to the reduction in the grain size after each ECAP pass. After four ECAP passes, the average grain size of the AZ61 samples was found to be reduced to 85%, 81%, and 70% for the pressing temperatures of 483 K, 523 K and 573 K respectively. The tensile strength of the AZ61 alloy increased with increase in number of ECAP passes for each of the temperatures when compared to as-received alloy. For instances, for the processing temperature of 483 K, 523 K and 573 K, the tensile strength increased to 24%, 10%, and 12% respectively at four ECAP pass. Also, the percentage elongation of the alloy was increased with increase in processing temperatures. Moreover, fracture topographies of the tensile surfaces are illustrated through scanning electron microcopy and reveal ductile fracture than as received alloy for four passes at each ECAP processing temperature.