Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141

Finite element analysis of plastic deformation of CP-Ti by

multi-pass equal channel angular extrusion at medium
hot-working temperature
Z.J. Zhang a , I.H. Son b , Y.T. Im b , J.K. Park a,∗
a Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology,
371-3 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea
b Department of Mechanical Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology,

371-3 Guseong-dong, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 305-701, Republic of Korea

Received 14 July 2006; received in revised form 26 August 2006; accepted 22 October 2006

Abstract
The plastic deformation of commercially pure (CP) titanium by multi-pass equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE), at medium hot-working
temperature, was simulated using finite element method. The effect of ECAE deformation was to uniformly deform the middle billet by simple
shear and to induce a side shift of un-deformed and un-moved billet-ends so as to preserve its original shape during deformation. Unlike the single
ECAE pass, where the corner gap is important, it was the repetitive billet-end side-shift of less-deformed billet-ends which are responsible for
the development of the non-uniformly deformed zone in the multi-pass ECAE processing via route A. The deformation zone was however little
affected in the multi-pass EACE processing via route C, because of the alternate sense of billet-end side-shift. The simulation well predicted the
inclination angles of elongated-grain in the multi-pass ECAE deformation.
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Finite element analysis; Equal channel angular extrusion; Titanium; Flow pattern; Severe plastic deformation

1. Introduction
Equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) is widely known as
one of the promising techniques to impose severe plastic defor-
mation on bulk materials to produce ultra-fine grained materials
[1]. The ECAE process [2,3] is to press a well-lubricated billet
through two crossing channels and simple shear is applied to the
billet at the intersection of the channels. The unique advantage
of the technique is that the billet has approximately the same
size and shape before and after deformation, and therefore
repetitive extrusions of the billet are feasible to induce heavy
deformation.
The multi-pass ECAE process can apply the strains along
different deformation routes by rotating the billet between
the successive passes and the various deformation routes can
produce various different billets exhibiting quite different grain
sizes and textures [3,4]. The ECAE deformation process is also
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +82 42 869 3323; fax: +82 42 869 3310.
E-mail address: jkpark@webmail.kaist.ac.kr (J.K. Park).
affected by the ECAE-die channel angle [5], strain rate [6],
friction [7] and back pressure [8,9].
In order to optimize the ECAE processing conditions and
to maximize the ECAE workability, it is necessary to study
the detailed plastic deformation behavior of ECAE processing.
Due to the complexity of ECAE process, finite element method
(FEM) has been widely used to simulate the deformation behav-
ior of materials and to predict the formation of flow pattern
[10–16].
Most of the simulation works have been however confined
to the single-pass of ECAE processing [10–14]. Although a few
works have been reported on the multi-pass ECAE processing
[15,16], these works have been confined to a special simulation-
die consisting of interconnected multi-channels, where a long
billet was forced to pass through the several die-channel inter-
sections continuously.
In practice however, the multi-pass ECAE processing is
performed by repeating the extrusion through one die-channel
intersection, pass by pass in a discontinuous manner. The
purpose of the present study was thus, for the first time, to
simulate the plastic deformation behavior of CP-Ti during a

0921-5093/$ – see front matter © 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.msea.2006.10.068
 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141 135

Fig. 1. FEM simulation model of ECAE process: (a) the first pass; (b) the route A for the second pass; (c) the route C for the second pass.

real discontinuous multi-pass ECAE processing and to study in 450 ◦ C under various strain rates using ThermecMaster. These
particular the effect of deformation route on the development flow data were then input into the FE code using subroutine and
of plastic deformation pattern. were used to extract material property at this temperature and
various strain rates using extrapolation method. Fig. 2 shows
2. Simulation procedures typical flow curves measured at 450 ◦ C and compares with the
re-calculated data using subroutine. The material exhibits a typ-
FEM simulation was carried out using CAMPform-2D [17], ical strain hardening behavior under the conditions of a slow
which is a metal forming simulation program self-developed to intermediate strain rates, 0.01 to about 1 s−1 , which was a
based on the rigid thermo-viscoplastic formulation and constant typical strain rate condition for the present simulation. To study
shear friction model [13] .The simulation was performed at a the possible effect of strain hardening on the ECAE deforma-
medium hot-working temperature, 450 ◦ C under slow to inter- tion behavior, a hypothetical material showing a rigid-perfectly
mediate strain rate conditions. plastic (RPP) flow behavior was also tested for the purpose of
The 2D simulation-die was consisted of two channels, meet- comparison.
ing at an angle 2ϕ, as schematically shown in Fig. 1a. The
10 mm × 60 mm billet was divided into 1520 linear quadrilateral
elements with a total of 1632 nodes. A constant ram speed of
0.71 mm/s was used for the simulation. To realize the simulation
of various deformation routes, the die settings were designed to
use the same pressing channel but having the opposite exit chan-
nels (Fig. 1b and c). The opposite extrusion directions of billet
in Fig. 1b and c lead to 0◦ and 180◦ cyber rotations, which
correspond to routes A and C, respectively. Three different fric-
tion conditions, with friction coefficient M = 0, 0.13 or 0.5, were
chosen to simulate the cases of ideal, intermediate or very high
friction force. Two out-die-corner angles R = 0 and 5 mm, which
are equivalent to the corner angle 2Ψ = 0◦ and 36.9◦ , respec-
tively, were applied to simulate the effect of corner angle on the
deformation process of ECAE billet.
The flow curves of grade-1 commercially pure titanium (CP- Fig. 2. Flow curves of CP-Ti measured at 450 ◦ C under various strain rates. The
Ti) were obtained from the hot compression test performed at dotted lines represent the calculated data using subroutine.
136 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141
Fig. 3. Geometrical analysis of shape deformation during ECAE process: (a) the
billet position before ECAE processing and (b) the billet position after ECAE
processing.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Geometrical analysis of the shape deformation of
ECAE-billet
One of the chief advantages of ECAE processing is in its abil-
ity to impose heavy plastic deformation on the billet through a
multi-pass ECAE processing. The multi-pass ECAE processing
is possible because the deformation by ECAE processing is able
to preserve the size and shape of billet, as remarked by Bowen et
al. [7]. It is of interest to examine how the ECAE processing can
preserve the size and shape of billet during ECAE deformation
(Fig. 3).
The ECAE-billet can be divided into three sections depend-
ing on the deformation pattern, the leading billet-end CDE, the
middle-billet BCEF, and the tail billet-end ABF. When the billet
is pressed through the ECAE die-channel, it travels down freely
until the leading billet-end touches the bottom of entrance chan-
nel (Fig. 3a). Since the leading billet-end has already passed
through the shear plane CE, the leading billet-end CDE is hardly
deformed during the subsequent ECAE process. Further press-
ing generates local stresses around C and E and finally leads to
a development of stable deformation zone along CE at a suf-
ficiently large pressing force. If a stable deformation zone is
Fig. 4. FEM-simulated mesh deformations (a and c) and effective strain distributions (b and d) for the first ECAE pass in a 90◦ -die with the radius of out-die-corner
R = 0 mm and the friction force M = 0: (a and b) for rigid-perfectly plastic material and (c and d) for CP-Ti.
formed, all the billet materials, passing through the zone, expe-
rience the same simple shear in a sense indicated by arrows.
Continuous extrusion will then produce a uniformly deformed
section BCEF by simple shear in the middle-billet (Fig. 3b).
When the extrusion is finished, the tail billet-end ABF, resem-
bling its counterpart CDE, does not pass through the deformation
zone and remains un-deformed (Fig. 3b).
After ECAE deformation, a unit element ‘abcd’ in the
middle-billet will be found in a position of Fig. 3b, where
‘bd’, which is parallel to CE, is an un-deformed plane, since
it becomes the shear plane on passing the deformation zone.
Comparison of the billet before (Fig. 3a) and after ECAE
(Fig. 3b) showed that the original billet-ends CD and AF became
billet-sides, which are actually billet surfaces, after an ECAE-
passing, indicating that the billet-end side-shift from billet-end
to billet-side occurs during ECAE-passing. This was because
the billets-ends were un-deformed and un-moved during ECAE
deformation, although the middle-billet was homogeneously
sheared. It is this billet-end side-shift which is responsible for
the conservation of billet shape during the multi-pass ECAE
processing.
3.2. Simulation of deformation during a single ECAE-pass
The simulation of materials showing an ideal, rigid-perfectly
plastic (RPP) flow behavior (Fig. 4a) showed that the predicted
flow pattern is in good agreement with the geometrical defor-
mation behavior discussed in the previous section. The two
billet-ends CDE and ABF maintained their triangular shapes and
were only slightly deformed. In contrast, finite element meshes
in the middle section were uniformly sheared, as predicted, after
passing through the deformation zone. Sharp and straight strain
contours localized to the channel intersection revealed that the
deformation zone is very narrow and almost confined to the shear
plane (Fig. 4b).
On the other hand, the ECAE-simulation of CP-Ti (Fig. 4c
and d) showed distinctively different flow pattern from the ideal
materials. First, the leading billet-end tended to be separated
from the die-surface. Second, the billet could not completely fill
the lower left die-corner and a gap appeared between the billet
and the die-corner. Third, the strain contours in the deformation
 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141
Fig. 5. Variation of the simulated effective strain with the position along
transversal direction at the billet center for CP-Ti and RPP materials after the first
ECAE pass; simulation compared the various die conditions such as different
radius (R) of out-die-corner and with different friction force (M).
zone (Fig. 4d) spread over a wider area and the deformation
amount was significantly reduced at the bottom side of the
middle-billet BCEF. The formation of corner gap arises from
the work hardening property of CP-Ti, as already shown in a
previous simulation work [12].
The round die-corner has a similar effect as the die-corner
gap; the materials in the outside zone are forced to pass through
a short distance by the round die wall regardless of the material
properties and are therefore expected to be much less deformed
as compared to the sharp corner die (Fig. 5).
The formation of corner gap is also responsible for the appear-
ance of less-deformed zone at the bottom side of the billet.
The effect of die-corner gap on the strain distribution can be
more clearly appreciated in a plot of simulated strain distribu-
tion across the billet width in the middle section (Fig. 5). The
ideal RPP billet with sharp corner and no friction produced a
uniform strain distribution across the cross section for both the
channel angles of 90◦ and 120◦ ; the level of strain was in good
Fig. 6. Variation of the simulated flownets (a, c, e, g) and effective strains (b, d, f, h) of CP-Ti with the increasing number of ECAE pass during multi-pass ECAE
processing through route A in a 90◦ die with R = 0 mm and M = 0: (a and b) 2nd pass; (c and d) 4th pass; (e and f) 8th pass; (g and h) 16th pass. Note the end-to-side
side-shifts of two less-deformed billet-ends and their movement along the billet surfaces with the increasing number of ECAE pass.
137
agreement with the prediction of Segal’s analytical equation [3].
In contrast, for the case of CP-Ti billet, a less-deformed zone
extended up to 30% of the billet width in both the channel angles
of 90◦ and 120◦ . A round corner die has a similar effect as the
corner gap and further deteriorated the uniformity of strain dis-
tribution (Fig. 5).
The friction force experienced by the billet surface is expected
to resist the extrusion and produce a larger deformation near the
bottom side where the friction force is large. For the RPP billet,
when the friction coefficient was moderate (Fig. 5), the effective
strain rose up to 2.33 at the bottom surface and then decreased to
a stable value of 1.12 at the 25% of the billet width. For the CP-Ti
billet, the same effect of friction force resulted in a reduction of
the extent of a less-deformed zone developed from the presence
of corner gap.
3.3. Materials flow in the multi-pass ECAE processing of
CP-Ti
To keep tracking of the materials flow during the multi-
pass ECAE processing, a flow-net technique was used in the
FEM simulation. The flow-nets, which are not the finite element
meshes, are analogous to the scribed grids on the surface of billet
in experiments.
Although a similar amount of plastic deformation is gen-
erated in each of ECAE passes, the final plastic deformation
pattern of the multi-passed ECAE-billet is determined by the par-
ticular deformation route employed for ECAE processing. For
the route A of ECAE processing of CP-Ti (Fig. 6), the amount
of plastic deformation produced in each of ECAE passes simply
added up to one another to produce the final amount of plas-
tic deformation of multi-passed ECAE-billet. As a result, the
middle billet was continuously sheared with the increasing pass
number. The two un-deformed leading billet- and tail billet-ends
of the initial billet were forced to move continuously, referring
to the billet-frame, towards the opposite end of billet along the
bottom and upper surfaces, respectively, because the billet-end
side-shift of billet-ends occurs repeatedly with the increasing
138 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141
Fig. 7. Variation of the simulated flownets of CP-Ti with the increasing number
of ECAE pass during multi-pass ECAE processing through route C in a 90◦ die
with R = 0 mm and M = 0: (a) second pass; (b) third pass; (c) fourth pass. Note
the sense of billet-end side-shift is reversed at every alternative number of ECAE
pass.
number of ECAE-pass. It is to remark here that, as a result of this
billet-end side-shift, the billet-sides, i.e. billet surfaces, increas-
ingly become less deformed, since the billet-ends are always
little deformed in a subsequent ECAE-pass.
The simulated material flow patterns of CP-Ti as a function
of the number of ECAE pass (Fig. 6) were in good agreement
with the experimentally observed material flow patterns of alu-
minum alloy 3003 [18] and of Cu–18Nb alloy [19]. Bowen et
al. [7] embedded a copper wire in Al–Mg alloy billet to extrude
the billet through 120◦ ECAE-die and observed the movement
of copper wire around the end of billet in a clockwise sense, in
good agreement with the prediction of present simulation. The
result was similar because CP-Ti typically showed a strain hard-
ening behavior under the stain rate conditions of the present
simulation, which were corresponding to 0.01–1 s−1 (Fig. 2).
Similar materials flow patterns were also observed in some of
plasticine model studies [20,21].
In contrast, for the route C of ECAE processing (Fig. 7), the
subsequent pass imposes a flow pattern with a reverse sense to
that of the previous pass because of the billet rotation of 180◦ .
The grids in the middle-billet recovered their un-deformed shape
at each even number of passes, although the effective strains in
the middle-billet were still accumulating. The two billet-ends of
CDE and ABF were side-shifted forward at an odd number of
ECAE passes and side-shifted backward to the original position
at an even number of ECAE passes.
3.4. Effect of the billet-end side-shift
Segal et al. [19] experimentally studied the deformation pat-
tern of multi-passed Cu–18Nb alloy ECAE-billet and observed
that the macro-flow pattern consists of four different regions
depending on the flow direction. In a subsequent study, Segal
[18] and Cui et al. [22] showed graphically the flow pattern of
multi-passed ECAE-billet, in routes A and B up to four passes,
by constructing a self-consistent velocity field.
In the present simulation, the flow pattern of CP-Ti was sim-
ulated up to 16 passes in route A (Fig. 6); it should be remarked
that the extrapolated material property of CP-Ti was similar to
that of RPP material after the second pass, which is not unrealis-
Fig. 8. Schematic diagram showing the development of uniformly deformed
zone in a shape of (a) inclined six-sided polygon for low numbers of ECAE
passes and (b) inclined four-sided polygon for high numbers of ECAE passes
through route A. The shape depends on the die-channel angle, 2ϕ, which can be
appreciated on comparing with Fig. 12.
tic considering a report showing a near RPP behavior after first
pass [4]. Fig. 8 shows schematically the development and evo-
lution of uniformly deformed zone in the middle-billet; the zone
first appeared as an inclined six-sided polygon and later evolved
into a four-sided polygon. The width of the uniformly deformed
zone was initially constant up to the third pass, but started to
decrease thereafter with the increasing number of ECAE-passes.
To investigate the mechanism of the formation of these flow
patterns, we have examined the evolution of the effective strain
distribution across the billet width in Fig. 6. The result (Fig. 9)
showed that the top and bottom sides of billet, from the fourth
pass, begin to experience a smaller deformation as compared to
the middle-billet so as to reduce the width of uniformly deformed
zone in the middle-billet. The width of uniformly deformed zone
continuously decreased with the increasing number of ECAE
passes and eventually disappeared after the eighth pass. This is
because of the interaction of the less-deformed billet-end with
the uniformly deformed zone in the middle-billet.
In the previous section, it was pointed out that, for route A,
the two un-deformed billet-ends of the initial billet continuously
moved down the bottom and upper surface towards the opposite
billet-ends with the increasing number of ECAE pass, due to
Fig. 9. Variation of the distribution of simulated effective strain, along the
transversal direction at the billet center, with the increasing number of ECAE
pass for CP-Ti through route A in a 90◦ die with R = 0 mm and M = 0: (a) 1st
pass; (b) 3rd pass; (c) 4th pass; (d) 5th pass; (e) 6th pass; (f) 7th pass; (g) 8th
pass; (h) 12th pass; (i) 16th pass.
 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141 139

Fig. 10. Variation of the maximum effective strain at the billet center and relative
strain deviation, i.e. the maximum strain difference normalized by the maximum
strain, with the increasing number of ECAE passes for CP-Ti through route A
in a 90◦ die with R = 0 mm and M = 0.

the billet-end side-shift. As a consequence, the billet surfaces

Fig. 11. Schematic diagram illustrating a formation procedure of new billet-end
became increasingly less-deformed with the increasing number during an establishment of a steady state flow condition in the shear plane CE in
of ECAE-pass. It is this repetitive billet-end side-shift with the an ECAE die with channel angle 2ϕ. Note that a part of initial billet-end C(C )P
increasing pass number that is, unlike the single-pass ECAE became a billet-side after ECAE; namely, a part of billet-end went through a
processing, responsible for the development of less-deformed side-shift during ECAE deformation.
regions near the bottom and upper surfaces in the multi-pass
The length of billet-end side-shift λ for 1 pass can be esti-
ECAE processing.
mated, from the geometry (Fig. 11) as:
The simulation (Fig. 9) showed that the two un-deformed
initial billet-ends reached the billet-center after the third pass, λ = H cot ϕ, (1)
for the first time, and after the 10th pass for the second time. The
plot of the effective strain at the billet-center (Fig. 10) showed where H is the billet width. Thus, the length of billet-end side-
that the cumulative effective strain is in good agreement with shift in a 90◦ -die is predicted to be H, in agreement with Fig. 3,
the value predicted by Segal’s equation [3], but start to deviate whereas it is predicted to be 0.58H in a 120◦ -die. The simulated
from the predicted value from the ninth pass. This is because flow pattern of RPP material for 1 pass in a 120◦ -die (Fig. 12)
the deformation field of less-deformed initial billet-ends started was is in good agreement with this prediction. Now, the number
to interact with that of the billet center from the ninth pass. The of ECAE passes, n required for a billet-end to travel a distance
magnitude of the relative strain deviation, which is the maximum  is then given by:
strain difference normalized by the maximum strain, became  
n= = (2)
minima whenever the initial billet-end reaches the mid-line of λ H cot ϕ
billet, which is at the third and 10th passes and so on.
Using Eq. (2), we can then evaluate the number of passes for
We can estimate the number of passes, n required for the ini-
a billet-end initially at a mid-line to reach the next midline on
tial billet-end to travel a distance  along the billet surface, due to
the opposite surface of billet. The number is simply 7, for the
the billet-end side-shift, during the multi-pass ECAE processing.
present 90◦ -die, since the required travel distance  = L + H for
Fig. 11 schematically depicts the constraining procedure for the
this case. On the other hand, the number of passes required for
leading billet-end by lower die-surface during the establishment
the initial billet-end to reach the first mid-line is 3, since  = L/2
of steady state flow condition. Once the billet corner C (Fig. 11)
for this time. Therefore, Eq. (2) predicts, for the present 90◦ -die,
reaches the die-corner O, the billet corner C stays unmoved on
further pressing the billet to establish a steady state flow condi-
tion in the shear plane CE. During this process, however, a part
of billet edge CD continuously travels down until it is touched
and constrained by the lower die-surface. The constraint by the
lower die-surface is expected, for a first approximation, to extend
up to point P, which makes a plane with point E, i.e. plane PE,
being perpendicular to the extrusion direction. The distance OP
is thus the extent over which the lower die exerts a constraint
Fig. 12. FEM-simulated flow patterns of RPP material for a 120◦ -die: (a) flow
on the billet during the establishment of this critical condition net for the first pass; (b) flow-net after 4 passes. Note that the C (C), P , and D
and this is the part of billet-end which has been side-shifted to in (a) corresponds to those in Fig. 11 and that the length C P is the measure of
become a part of billet-side as a result of ECAE-deformation. λ in Fig. 11.
140 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141

Table 1
Simulated inclination angle (◦ ) of elongated-grain at the various numbers of ECAE passes
Friction (M) Pass 1 Pass 2 Pass 3 Pass 4 Pass 5 Pass 6 Pass 7 Pass 8

90◦
Eq. (3) 26.57 14.04 9.46 7.12 5.71 4.76 4.09 3.57
RPP
R = 0 mma 0 25.91 13.76 9.16 6.86 5.34 4.46 3.68 3.30
Ti
R = 0 mm 0 27.16 14.00 9.33 6.79 5.61 4.62 3.98 3.32
R = 5 mm 0 27.98 14.86 9.76 7.44 5.85 4.74 4.18 3.77
0.13 27.35 14.27 9.5 7.05 – – – –
0.5 26.92 14.32 9.58 6.94 5.86 4.84 4.26 3.49
120◦
Eq. (3) 40.89 23.41 16.10 12.22 9.83 8.21 7.05 6.18
RPP
R = 0 mm 0 40.05 23.27 16.07 12.28 – – – –
Ti
R = 0 mm 0 45.08 25.16 17.35 12.97 – – – –
a Radius of out-die-corner.

that the initial leading billet-end will reach the mid-line first at
the third pass, next at 10th pass, and so on, which appeared to
be in good agreement with the simulation result of Fig. 10. The
validity of Eq. (2) was also confirmed in 120◦ -die after 4 passes,
which can be seen in Fig. 12.
3.5. Inclination angle of elongated-grain
Iwahashi et al. [23] analyzed geometrically how the cubic
unit cell will be sheared with the increasing number of ECAE
passes in various deformation routes and showed that the cubic
element will be continuously elongated in shape and continu-
ously inclined in angle towards the extrusion direction due to
the accumulation of simple shear in route A. The direction of
the elongated-cell (Fig. 3) can be regarded as that of elongated-
grain. The inclination angle of the elongated-grain with respect
to the extrusion axis can be calculated from the geometry by
 
tan ϕ
β = arctan , (3)
2n
where 2ϕ is the channel angle and n is the number of passes.
From the present ECAE-simulation results, one can easily
observe the shearing process of unit cell in the middle-billet
(Fig. 6) and measure the variation of the angle β (Fig. 8) with the
increasing number of ECAE passes. The result of this measure-
ment is shown in Table 1 for the various processing conditions
and compared with the ideal angle predicted by Eq. (3). The
inclination angle of the elongated-grain abruptly decreased from
90◦ to 27.16◦ for the first pass of ECAE processing of CP-Ti
in a 90◦ -die and decreased slowly with a further increase in
the pass number. The inclination angle of elongated-grain was
not only dependent on the channel angle but also dependent on
the processing parameters such as the radius of die-corner, fric-
tion force and material property. The inclination angle became
smaller whenever the processing conditions are such that they
induce more plastic deformation. For example, the angle became
smaller with the smaller channel angle and radius of die-corner
and with the larger friction force.
4. Conclusions
1. 2D-FEM simulation revealed that the middle-billet is uni-
formly sheared, whereas the two billet-ends, being un-
deformed and un-moved, experienced a billet-end side-shift
to preserve the billet shape during ECAE deformation.
2. The uniformity of plastic deformation for a single passed
ECAE-billet of CP-Ti, at medium hot-working tempera-
ture, was not only affected by the material property such
as work hardening property of CP-Ti but also by the pro-
cessing parameters such as channel intersection angle, angle
of die-corner and friction force. The results were similar
to those of cubic materials, simply because CP-Ti essen-
tially showed a typical work hardening behavior at medium
hot-working temperature under low to intermediate strain
rates.
3. Multi-pass ECAE simulation of CP-Ti, at medium hot-
working temperature, through the deformation route A,
showed that a uniformly deformed zone develops first into a
shape of inclined six-sided polygon and later into a four-sided
polygon in the middle-billet before its complete disappear-
ance. This was because the billet surfaces became increas-
ingly less-deformed with the increasing ECAE-pass number,
due to the repetitive side-shift of the less-deformed billet-
ends.
4. Unlike the route A, the deformation route C led to the devel-
opment of stable deformation zone because of the reverse
sense of billet-end side-shift at every other passes.
5. The inclination angles of elongated-grain, in the uniformly
deformed zone, predicted in the simulation for multi-pass
ECAE processing, were in good agreement with those pre-
dicted by the analysis of deformation geometry.
Acknowledgement
Authors are grateful to the Korea Science and Engineering
Foundation for their financial support of this research through
the grant number R01-2005-000-11247-0.
 Z.J. Zhang et al. / Materials Science and Engineering A 447 (2007) 134–141 141

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