Titanium and its alloys are widely used for medicine implants nowadays. However, zirconium alloys are also considered as possible material for implants in recent years. High corrosion resistance and biocompatibility are the advantages of these alloys. Using specific deformation treatments such as severe plastic deformation (SPD) methods allows obtaining items based on zirconium alloys with higher mechanical properties.
In this paper we studied the influence of severe plastic deformation by equal-channel angular pressing (ECAP) on the structure and mechanical properties of zirconium alloy E125 (Zr - 2,5 mass fraction,% Nb).
The microstructure of the samples after ECAP, mechanical properties under tensile tests, fracture surfaces has been analyzed and crack resistance was determined. The quantitative estimation of crack resistance of E125 zirconium alloy after ECAP has been obtained and it is shown that the main factor affecting the value of Kc is the heterogeneity of the structure.