My research in March:
- Vicker’s microhardness test performed on the third series of composite samples
(with submicron AlN reinforcement)
- ball-milling of Al/AlN (10%) and AA7475/AlN (5%) powders
- uniaxial hot pressing of Al/AlN (10%) ball milled powder
- TEM investigations of Al/Mg3N2 compacts with EDX anlysis

My research carried out in March:
- preparing the surface of the AA3004 aluminium alloy for EBSD/SEM measurements: grinding on abrasive papers (it was need to take off 1 mm of the surface)and polishing using diamond pastes and electropolishing.
- obtaining EBSD orientation maps for the AA3004 aluminium alloy after processing through ECAP die and recrystallised in conditions:
a) 1h - 400°C;
b) 1h - 350°C;
c) 1h - 300°C;
d) 1h - 200°C.
First look on the obtained microstructures showed that the ultra-fine grained structure is kept till 200°C, because in 300°C are observed great grains and grains growth is continued in higher temperatures.

Main studies carried out during March:

- microhardness measurements of the melt - spun ribbons with chromium, titanium, and vanadium addition in the as- cast state,
- preparation of new pentanary alloy,
- investigation of thin foils with titanium and vanadium addition using TEM,
- trials of obtaining melt spun ribbons from ingot of pentanary alloy
- TEM investigation of thin ribbons with zirconium addition – analysis of microstructure evaluation after annealing
- XRD analysis of quaternary ingot with copper and silicon addition,
- analysis of the results obtained so far,
- participation in seminars and lectures,

This month I was focused on 3D EBSD experiments on aluminium 6013 alloy after severe plastic deformation. The new software that was installed 2 months ago works quite well. Apart from data collection, data post processing was also carried out. Since there are no well established methods for data processing, final results are quite arguable. One of the goals in my work is to solve the issue.

In March microstructural research on KoBo deformed materials continues. Two sample types of KoBo'ed hexagonall materials were prepared: 8 mm discs from CP Grade 2 titanium and resin immersed 2 mm zinc wires (oriented to observe transverse section). Samples were prepared for EBSD investigations. In case of titanium which has become stronger after KoBo deformation (675 Mpa compared to 345 MPa of standard CP grade 2 Ti) observed microstructure consisted of mixture of elongated twisted grains (length ~7 um) and smaller equiaxial grains (diameter ~1 um). Some initial problems with surface preparation for EBSD (lots of unsolved diffractions) were solved by use of thicker sample. This allowed for better control over polishing part of preparation and resulted with higher rate of indexed diffractions.
Other type of samples (pure zinc) where also investigated with EBSD technique. Microstucture consisted of smaller and larger equiaxed grains with dimensions grouped around 15 and 40 micrometers. Interesting observation was made during analysis of image quality factor. Distribution of qf (which can be connected to local strains related to crystallographic defects) suggests that zinc processed by KoBo technique poses composite like structure. This structure consists of undistorted grains and relatively thick areas along grain boundaries with high level of residual strain. Such an arrangement of features could be used to explain some of the unusual mechanical behavior observed in Zn KoBo.