NUKLEONIKA 2006, 51(Suppl. 1):s19-s25
Zbigniew Pakieła, Halina Garbacz, Małgorzata Lewandowska, Anna Drużycka-Wiencek, Małgorzata Su-Ryszkowska, Witold Zieliński, Krzysztof J. Kurzydłowski
Faculty of Materials Science and Engineering, Warsaw University of Technology,
141 Wołoska Str., 02-507 Warsaw, Poland
In recent years, a number of methods for refining the structure of metals by severe plastic
deformation (SPD) have been developed. Some of those methods permit grain refinement to a
nanometric level. These methods include, among others, high pressure torsion (HPT), equal channel
angular pressing (ECAP) and hydrostatic extrusion (HE). The aim of this paper was a more detailed
description of these methods and presentation of exemplary applications of these methods for structure
refinement and improvement of mechanical properties of chosen materials. The results obtained in the
present study show that the microstructures of the materials subjected to SPD studied in this work
displayed considerable refinement, characterised by the formation of nanosized grains. Such a refinement
resulted in increased tensile strength and hardness of the SPD materials studied in this work.
In view of the results obtained on a large number of metals and alloys, a conclusion can be drawn
that SPD could become an attractive way of processing materials for variety of applications.