Investigation on the geometrical aspect of deformation during equal-channel angular pressing by in-situ physical modeling experiments

The deformation mechanism of equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) was investigated by in-situ physical modeling experiment, in which the billet consisting of two kinds of color grains with designed patterns was pressed through an ECAP die made of a transparent plexiglass. It was found that the evolution of the flow patterns was governed by the geometric character of ECAP die, and a deformation zone with a sector shape was formed in billet during the experiments. Based on the observations in the in-situ physical modeling experiment, a simple flow line field and the corresponding geometrical aspect of shear deformation were proposed.