León Iriarte, JavierSalcedo Pérez, DanielMurillo Crespo, ÓscarLuis Pérez, CarmeloFuertes Bonel, Juan PabloPuertas Arbizu, IgnacioLuri Irigoyen, Rodrigo2017-10-302017-10-3020152075-4701 (Electronic)10.3390/met5031397https://academica-e.unavarra.es/handle/2454/26071Over these last few years, there has been a growing interest in developing mechanical components from submicrometric materials due to the significant improvement that these materials present compared to their original state. This present research work deals with the study of the mechanical properties of a connecting rod isothermally forged from different starting materials. These materials are as follows: annealed aluminum alloy (AA) 5754, the same alloy previously deformed through equal channel angular pressing (ECAP) and a third case where the previously ECAP-processed material is subjected to a recovery heat treatment. A comparison is made between finite volume (FV) simulations and experimental tests with respect to hardness, plastic strain and forging force. Furthermore, the improvement in the mechanical properties of the connecting rod forged from predeformed material is evaluated in comparison to the connecting rod forged with annealed material. The microstructure of both cases is also compared at the end of the manufacturing process.17 p.application/pdfeng© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.ECAPIsothermal forgingMicrohardnessFVHeat treatmentArtículo / ArtikuluaAcceso abierto / Sarbide irekiainfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess