Mechanical Properties of 1.5 wt.% TiB2-added Hypoeutectic Al-Mg- Si Alloys Processed by Equal Channel Angular Pressing

In order to improve the mechanical properties and to optimize grain refinement of Al-Mg-Si alloy, ECAP processing with an addition of hard particle TiB₂ is applied in this work. Mechanical property and microstructural evolution of Al-0.3Mg-7Si+1.5 wt.% TiB₂ specimen were investigated by using hardness-testing, optical micrograph observation and electron-backscattering diffraction (EBSD). ECAP processing was done through B_A route for 4 passes at room temperature. Hardness test results show that the ECAP process doubled the hardness of the specimen compared to annealed specimen, and from EBSD/OIM analysis, the ECAP processing refined grains from an average grain size of 35 μm to 0.79 μm and led to producing grains having high misorientation angle (≥15).