Unique mechanical properties of nanostructured metals.

Recently, it becomes possible to fabricate bulk metals having ultrafine grained or nanocrystalline structures of which grain size is in nano-meter dimensions. One of the promising ways to realize bulk nanostructured metals is severe plastic deformation (SPD) above logarithmic equivalent strain of 4. We have developed an original SPD process, named Accumulative Roll Bonding (ARB) using rolling deformation in principle, and have succeeded in fabricating bulk nanostructured sheets of various kinds of metals and alloys. The ARB process and the nanostructured metals fabricated by the ARB are introduced in this paper. The nanostructured metals sometimes perform quite unique mechanical properties, that is rather surprising compared with conventionally coarse grained materials. The unique properties seem to be attributed to the characteristic structures of the nano-metals full of grain boundaries.