Severe plastic deformation in highly immiscible copper alloys: self-organization

Severe plastic deformation (SPD) techniques such as equal channel angular pressing (ECAP), high pressure torsion (HPT), high energy ball milling (BM), accumulative roll bonding (ARB), are well known to refine the microstructures of metals and alloys into non-equilibrium states with nanometer-size grains, and they are gaining widespread interest for processing bulk nanostructured materials. Existing models like the “Driven System Model” and “Effective Temperature Model” can explain existing experimental results for alloys systems with low to moderate heat of mixing, such as Cu-Ag, under SPD. For systems with high heats of mixing, however, e.g. the Cu-Nb, and Ni-Ag system, the previous models cannot be applied, especially when SPD is performed at low temperatures (T