Microstructure and mechanical properties of nanocrystalline Zr1.0Nb alloy obtained by equal channel angular pressing

Abstract

Recently Zirconium (Zr) alloys obtained new applications as a material for dental and orthopedic implants. Mechanical properties as functional ones are very important for such applications. The changes of microstructure and mechanical properties of Zr1.0Nb alloy processed by Equal Channel Angular Pressing (ECAP) was investigated in this work. ECAP is known to induce the grain refinement of metals and metallic alloys, which in turn improves their mechanical characteristics. Experimental. The analysis of the microstructure, dislocation structure and grain size of Zr1.0Nb alloy before and after ECAP was performed by means of transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The mechanical properties were investigated by using the uniaxial static and cyclic tension and microindentation tests. The fractography analysis was applied to study the fracture mechanisms.