Materials Letters 237 (2019) 84–87

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Materials Letters
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/mlblue

Mechanical behavior and microstructures of aluminum in the Multi-

Axial Compression (MAC) with and without specimen re-machining
Pedro M.A. Stemler a, Paula C.A. Flausino a, Pedro H.R. Pereira a, Cleber G. de Faria a, Natanael G.S. Almeida a,
Maria Teresa P. Aguilar b, Paulo R. Cetlin c,⇑
a
Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
b
Department of Materials Engineering and Civil Construction, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte 31270-901, Brazil

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) leads to grain refinement and strengthening of metals. The most uti-
Received 4 October 2018 lized SPD techniques are Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP), High Pressure Torsion (HPT) and
Received in revised form 5 November 2018 Multi-Axial Compression (MAC). Only MAC allows the determination of the stress–strain curves of the
Accepted 11 November 2018
material during processing. Although ECAP and HPT processing has been analyzed in detail, there are
Available online 13 November 2018
few studies of MAC procedures and their consequences. It is shown that only specimens re-machined
after each compression lead to adequate MAC stress–strain curves of the material, whose microstructures
Keywords:
are not affected by re-machining.
Microstructures
Multi-Axial Compression
Ó 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Aluminum
Stress–strain curves

1. Introduction lower stress levels in comparison with those in the previous

The most utilized Severe Plastic Deformation (SPD) techniques
are Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP), High Pressure Torsion
(HPT) and Multi-Axial Compression (MAC) [1]. MAC is simple,
easily up-scaled and allows the determination of the stress–strain
curves of the material for each compression (hereafter denomi-
nated SS curves) [2]. MAC was pioneered for 1100 Aluminum with
strain amplitudes De = 0.075–0.33 and total strain e  4 [3]; after
6–9 compressions, specimens were re-machined due to non-
parallel opposing faces, irregular lateral surfaces and various types
of distortions.
MAC was also performed on 99.99% Cu up to e = 2–3 with
De  0.3, 0.4 and 0.7, with specimen re-machining after each com-
pression step, (hereafter denominated R-MAC) [4]; the resulting SS
curves display low, positive work-hardening with a smooth enve-
lope. However, similar R-MAC for this material [5,6] led to SS
curves displaying either only work-hardening, or initial stress
peaks followed by work-softening, or initial stress peaks followed
by work-softening and then by work-hardening, with no smooth
envelope. Furthermore, these SS curves exhibit similar, higher or
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: pcetlin@demec.ufmg.br (P.R. Cetlin).
compression.
The same situation was reported for R-MAC in a Cu–Cr–Zr alloy
with De = 0.4 [7] and a 7075 aluminum alloy [8], processed with
De = 0.1, but utilizing not re-machined specimens (hereafter
denominated NR-MAC). NR-MAC on (i) 99.9995% aluminum with
De = 0.5, e = 12 displayed heavy specimen distortions [9], (ii)
AZ61 Mg alloy with De = 0.05, e = 10 exhibited mild specimen dis-
tortions [10] and (iii) 1070 Al with De = 0.075 and e = 0.9, after an
ECAP pass [11], led to SS curves displaying various shapes and
stress levels.
The use of R-MAC or NR-MAC may influence SS curves as well as
the material microstructures. No study of these influences was
found in the literature. The present results reveal that NR-MAC leads
to inadequate SS curves and that R-MAC eliminates these difficul-
ties. Similar microstructures were found for both types of MAC.
2. Experimental
MAC specimens were extracted from as-cast 99.77% Aluminum
after one initial ECAP pass and annealing; NR-MAC specimens were
13.00  12.52  12.06 mm. Each compression caused lateral dis-
torted faces to be compressed in the next processing step; these
faces were re-machined for R-MAC till they became flat. Their ini-
tial dimensions were 15.58  15.00  14.45 mm, so they became

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matlet.2018.11.081
0167-577X/Ó 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
 P.M.A. Stemler et al. / Materials Letters 237 (2019) 84–87
similar to those of NR-MAC after 12 re-machining and compres-
sions. Specimens underwent 12 multiaxial compressions with
De = 0.075 and e = 0.9, as described elsewhere [11].
Compressions utilized an INSTRON 5582 machine, flat anvils
and a crosshead speed of 0.05 mm/s. Duplicate experiments
were performed for both R-MAC and NR-MAC; no notable dif-
ferences in the results were observed between the repeated
experiments.
The initial height of NR-MAC specimens after a few compres-
sions presented various values, depending on the measurement
positions. Their initial height (hi) was thus taken as the average
of the maximum and minimum heights. Curve A-D-B in Fig. 1
illustrates a typical load versus anvil displacement curve for the
compression of a specimen with distorted compression surfaces
(see inset in Fig. 1). The total plastic shortening of the
specimen (Dhtotal) corresponds to point C, where De = 0.075 =
ln((hi Dhtotal)/hi)); the anvil displacement under load (given by
point F), is higher than Dhtotal, due to the elastic distortions of
the specimen and of the testing machine (totaling Dhelastic). The
necessary load at point B was experimentally determined by
unloading from increasing loads and measuring the specimen
height till it reached the desired final height (hfinal = hi Dhtotal).
Point A (corresponding to hi) is obtained as shown in Fig. 1. The
plastic shortening of the specimen for a generic point D in curve
ADB (DhE) is given by A-E, obtained drawing a parallel to B-C down
to E. The true strain at D is given by ln((hi DhE)/hi). The true
stress at D is given by the load at D divided by the instantaneous
cross-sectional area of the specimen, calculated from the specimen
volume. The slope in the initial part in the S shaped A-B curve is
lower than that of BC because the former also includes the plastic
flattening of irregular surfaces, thus causing only local deforma-
tions of the distorted compression surface of the specimen. These
faces also caused inclined positions of the specimens when they
were placed in the lower compression anvil, leading to misalign-
ments between the compression and specimen axes.
The determination of the SS curves for R-MAC was performed
similarly to NR-MAC, taking the initial height of the specimen as
Fig. 1. Load  anvil displacement curve for the compression of a distorted
specimen.
85
the height after the surface flattening by machining. The initial
slopes of the S shaped A-B curve in Fig. 1 were close to that of line
BC, because the initial distortion flattening was absent.
The microstructures at the center of the specimens, both for
R-MAC and NR-MAC were examined through EBSD using the same
procedures described elsewhere [12].
3. Results and discussion
Fig. 2a shows various aspects of a specimen after 12 NR-MAC
compressions. Face E was the last compressed face and is thus flat.
The various irregular specimen shapes originate localized strains
associated only with surface flattening during compression. In
addition, difficulties in the calculation of the initial height of the
specimens and misalignments between the compression and spec-
imen axes resulted in rhombohedrical shapes of the specimens in
NR-MAC. The re-machining of the specimens practically eliminated
these problems.
Fig. 2b displays the SS curves for NR-MAC. Each compression
step is indicated by the compression direction (X, Z or Y) and a
number (1, 2, 3 or 5); each set of ‘‘1”, ‘‘2”, ‘‘3” or ‘‘4” curves cor-
responds to a MAC cycle [11]. The slopes and final stress levels
of the various SS curves vary strongly, due to the different irreg-
ularities of the specimen surfaces for each compression, causing
various load evolutions associated with the initially localized
surface deformation and flattening and with the various degrees
of rhombohedrical specimen shapes. Such SS curves do not
describe adequately the mechanical behavior of the material
under MAC.
Fig. 2c displays the SS curves obtained in R-MAC. The prob-
lems exhibited in the SS curves in Fig. 2b are eliminated. The
SS curves for each R-MAC cycle (1, 2, 3 or 4) follow a regular
pattern, with curves for direction X initially somewhat above
the curves for direction Y; the curves for directions Z Y display
limited work-hardening of the material. Some curves exhibit dis-
crete initial stress peaks, followed by work-softening and then
work-hardening, which have been attributed in Copper to struc-
tural destabilization and latent hardening [5]. No stress level dif-
ferences between successive compression steps in copper has
been reported [13], but results for copper at 195 K show various
stress levels in the SS curves which displayed work-softening
[14].
The blue lines in Fig. 3a–c (for annealed, R-MAC and NR-MAC
specimens, respectively) correspond to the original grain bound-
aries in the annealed MAC specimens, containing large grains.
The red lines represent Low Angle Grain Boundaries generated by
MAC, which are consistent with the microstructural features
observed in recent investigations [15,16]. The grain refinement
caused by both R-MAC and NR-MAC is evident, and the morphol-
ogy and size of these structures are quite similar after the same
amount of compressions either by R-MAC or NR-MAC.
4. Conclusions
MAC without re-machined specimens after each compression
(NR-MAC) causes various lateral distortions and rhombohedrical
shapes of the specimens, leading to SS curves not describing
adequately the material behavior during MAC. Specimen
re-machining after each compression (R-MAC) solves these
difficulties.
Material microstructures at the specimen centers are insensi-
tive to the type of MAC (R-MAC or NR-MAC).
86 P.M.A. Stemler et al. / Materials Letters 237 (2019) 84–87

Fig. 2. (a) Shape of deformed specimens after 12 NR-MAC compressions, (b) SS curves for NR-MAC and (c) R-MAC.
 P.M.A. Stemler et al. / Materials Letters 237 (2019) 84–87 87

Acknowledgments

Material was supplied by Novelis do Brasil. Financial support of

CNPq (National Council for Research and Technological Develop-
ment) Grant 301034/2013-3 and of CAPES/PROEX (Education Min-
istry) at UFMG is acknowledged.

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Fig. 3. EBSD images with color coded grain boundary angles, at the center of the (a)
annealed specimen and after 12 compressions in (b) NR-MAC and (c) R-MAC. (For
interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred
to the web version of this article.)