Experimental Investigation of Thermal Conductivity of Aluminum Alloy 3003 Produced by Equal Channel Angular Rolling Process

Abstract

Equal channel angular rolling (ECAR) process is one of the methods that have been used to make ultra-fine materials by imposing severe plastic deformation. After repeating the process several times, a large effective strain is applied to the sample that can cause decreasing the grain size and improving the mechanical and physical properties of the metal. In this study, thermal conductivity of the samples that were produced by ECARwas investigated experimentally. Accordingly, the strips of aluminum alloy 3003 were ECARed up to 10 passes through route-A and route-C. The effect of number of ECAR pass and routes of ECAR process (A and C) were investigated. Furthermore, tensile behavior and micro-hardness of ECARed samples werestudied.According to the results,the thermal conductivity of samples increased up to definite pass and raised to its maximum value, then had an oscillatory trend up to tenth pass. Although this improvement of the thermal conductivitywasn't significantly, but the improvement of yield and ultimate strength and micro-hardness of the samples in passes associated with the maximum thermal conductivity, were meaningfully and so,this ECARed alloys can be used in harder situation.