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3Recently, Incremental ECAP (I-ECAP) [9] has been developed and proved as an efficient method of 4 producing UFG metals in the form of plates [10] or bars. [11] In particular, the plate shape seems to be 5 very promising in the case of further applications. fragmentation during plastic deformation may result in improved corrosion properties due to the 9 reduction of the cathodic surface.[17]
10In this study, the correlation between microstructure changes in base materials (due to SPD 11 processing) and stir zones (due to FSW processing) and their electrochemical response will be 12 discussed with the main emphasis on the influence of grains, grain boundaries and particles.
Experimental
14The investigated material was commercially pure aluminium (99.50 wt.%). According to EN AW- for materials with different number of I-ECAP passes, which comes from their structural 1 differences and which will not be the subject of the present study. The exact values were as follows:
13The samples in the form of thin foils were used. They were prepared using a wire saw, ground down also determined. SEM observations were also used in order to characterize the particles observed in 1 the microstructure. Samples were prepared the same way as for EBSD investigation.
2Before each electrochemical test, the sa...