Abstract: It is very important to research severe plastic deformation(SPD) techniques, which can make material produce ultrafine-grain organizations and improve the properties of the material significantly.In recent years, SPD became a hot spot in research.In this paper, principles, characters, applications and development of SPD techniques were introduced and the simulation and parameter optimization process of SPD by using the finite element method were summarized.The existing problems and development prospects of SPD were also presented.