Texture evolution during micro-drawing of ultrafine grained copper

Texture evolution during the microforming of severely deformed copper was studied by experimental measurements using X-ray and Electron Back-Scattered Diffraction techniques and by numerical simulation. The simulation includes the finite element analysis of micro-cup Swift tests on copper pre-deformed by different number of ECAP passes and polycrystal modelling of texture evolution. It was shown that FE simulations combined with a posteriori polycrystal plasticity modelling is an effective tool for the modelling of the texture development in the cup-drawing process. The obtained good agreement between the simulations and the measured texture development revealed that the rigid body rotations of the material during the cup test play a very important role in the texture evolution. Through-thickness variations of the texture were also observed both in experiments and simulations and are shown to be the result of the differences in the accumulated strains and the rigid body rotations across the cup wall.