Materials Science Forum, Vol.503-504, 811-816, 2006
Fracture and fatigue resistance of ultrafine grain CuCrZr alloy produced ECAP
Anisotropy of mechanical properties, fatigue and fracture resistance of precipitation hardened CuCrZr alloy ultrafine (UFG) grained by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) is in focus of the present communication. Fracture toughness was estimated in terms of J-integral and the fatigue crack growth rate was quantified. It was found that although the estimated J(IC)-value appeared lower than that reported in the literature for a reference alloy, the ductility, fracture and crack growth resistance remained satisfactory after ECAP while the tensile strength and fatigue limit improved considerably. The stable crack growth rate did not differ very much for ECAP and reference conventional CuCrZr and no remarkable anisotropy in the stable crack growth was noticed.