Thickness-related synchronous increase in strength and ductility of ultrafine-grained pure aluminum sheets

To explore the specimen size effect of mechanical behavior of ultrafine-grained (UFG) materials with different structures, UFG Al sheets processed by equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) were selected as target materials and the dependency of tensile behavior on sheet thickness (t) was systematically investigated. The strength and ductility of ECAPed UFG Al sheets were improved synchronously as t increased from 0.2 to 0.7 mm, and then no apparent change occurred when t reached to 0.7 and 1.0 mm. The corresponding microstructure evolved from dislocation networks in equiaxed grains into the walls and subgrains and finally into the dominated cells in elongated grains or subgrains. Meanwhile, dense shear lines (SLs) and shear bands (SBs) were clearly observed and microvoids and cracks were initiated along SBs with the increase of t. These observations indicated that the plastic deformation of UFG Al sheets was jointly controlled by shear banding, dislocation sliding, and grain-boundary sliding. Furthermore, the propagation of SBs became difficult as t increased. Finally, the obtained results were discussed and compared with those of annealed UFG Al and UFG Cu.