Effects of grain size on mechanical properties of nanostructured copper alloy by severe plastic deformation (SPD) process

Purpose – Severe plastic deformation (SPD) has provided new opportunities in investigations of enhanced mechanical properties like high strength and ductility by permitting grain refinement to a nanometer level, especially ultra‐fine grained and nanocrystalline metals and alloys. These materials have been attracting more and more research interest during the past few decades due to scientific curiosity and their engineering potentials with a significant advancement in their understanding. The purpose of this paper is to find the relationship between processing, structures and properties of these novel materials with the ultimate goal of producing a model to account for the grain size changes at the nano‐scale.Design/methodology/approach – In this paper, specimens with various grain sizes from 23 to 80 μm are obtained via processing by SPD, using equal channel angular press (ECAP) technique. The effect of grain size on the hardness properties of nanostructured copper alloy has been investigated using micro...