4. Post-ECAP annealing and effects on properties

Most ECAP-deformed materials, especially high-purity metals, exhibit poor temperature stability (grain coarsening), which can lead to loss of nanostructure and thus limit their commercial application. For example , ECAP-deformed copper samples of commercial purity were annealed between 27°C and 477°C at a heating rate of 40°C.min ^-1 . For each sample, the signal measured by differential scanning calorimetry showed a broad exothermic peak corresponding to the restoration of the microstructure. The peak maximum shifts towards lower...