The hardening or softening behavior of materials is one of the major factors affecting the deformation homogeneity in work-pieces during processing by equal channel angular pressing. In the present study, the difference between plastic flow behavior and deformation homogeneity of strain hardening and strain softening materials were investigated with the aid of finite element simulation. Results showed that localization of plastic strain occurred in the strain softening materials and fluctuations were observed in the strain distribution along work-piece. In strain hardening materials, a more uniform distribution of plastic strain was obtained compared to strain softening material.
