Effects of Constrained Groove Pressing (CGP) on the plane stress fracture toughness of pure copper

Among severe plastic deformation methods, groove pressing is one of the prominent techniques for producing ultra-fine grained sheet materials. This process consists of imposing repetitive severe plastic deformation on the plate or sheet metals through alternate pressing. In the current study, a 2 mm pure Cu sheet has been subjected to repetitive shear deformation up to two passes. Hardness and tensile yield and ultimate stress were obtained after groove pressing. Fracture toughness tests have been performed and compared for three conditions of sheet material namely as received (initial annealed state), after one and two passes of groove pressing. Results of experiments indicate that a decrease in the values of fracture toughness attains as the number of constrained groove pressing (CGP) passes increase.