Changes in the spatial distributions of platelet Al₃Ti particles in an Al-Al₃Ti alloy by equal-channel angular pressing

Changes in the spatial distributions of platelet Al₃Ti particles in an Al-Al₃Ti alloy during equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) were investigated. ECAP was performed under the processing routes of A and Bc up to 8 passes through a die. When applying route A, the Al₃Ti particles were greatly fragmented during the ECAP process and also aligned along to the deformation axis, while route Bc resulted in the agglomeration of the Al₃Ti particles. The Al₃Ti particle size was also found to gradually decrease as the number of ECAP passes was increased. The spatial distributions of these Al₃Ti particles in specimens deformed by ECAP were evaluated using the Morisita index, and the results showed that both processing routes generated aggregate distributions, although route Bc produced a homogeneous distribution of Al₃Ti particles after 8 passes. These variations in the spatial distributions of the Al₃Ti particles can be explained by the occurrence of material flow of the α-Al matrix during ECAP using routes A and Bc.