Structural Superplasticity in Relatively Lower Melting Alloys: Experimental

A majority of superplastic alloys require suitable thermo-mechanical processing to develop a microstructure conducive to superplastic deformation [11,13,14]. Several processing routes, including severe plastic deformation techniques, result in ultrafine grained (UFG) and nano-structured (NS) materials. Friction-stir processing (FSP) is one of the well-studied promising techniques. For convenience, superplasticity in different classes of materials is grouped based on the melting temperature of the alloys. In this chapter superplasticity in relatively lower melting temperature materials such as Tin–Lead alloys (model materials), Zinc–Aluminium alloys (first commercial superplastic alloy), Mg alloys (mostly in development), and Aluminium alloys (used in industry for decades) are discussed. The methods used to improve superplastic response are discussed. Structural superplasticity in higher melting materials is discussed in later chapters.