PROJECT REPORT

Behavior of Iron

NOVEMEBER 5, 2018
[COMPANY NAME]
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Table of Contents
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INTRODUCTION: .............................................................................................................................. 1
DESCRIPTION ................................................................................................................................... 2
Introduction of iron..................................................................................................................... 2
HISTORY OF IRON ........................................................................................................................ 2
TYPES OF IRON ............................................................................................................................ 3
 WROUGHT IRON:.................................................................................................................. 3
 CAST IRON: ........................................................................................................................... 4
 STEEL: ................................................................................................................................... 4
COMPARISON BETWEEN DIFFERENT ALLOYS OF IRON .............................................................. 5
CONCLUSION: .................................................................................................................................. 6
REFERENCES: ................................................................................................................................... 6
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INTRODUCTION:
In this report, I am going to investigate iron specifically. I will explore its processing,
physical and chemical properties, prediction and comparison of its properties and mechanical
properties e.g. toughness and strength etc.

Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the
first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth's
outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth's crust. Its abundance
in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-mass stars. So,
here we shall see why we use iron? And how it is changed from other metals.

DESCRIPTION
Introduction of iron
Iron is a brittle, hard substance, classified as a metal in Group 8 on the Periodic Table
of the Elements. It is the most abundant of all metals and its pure form rapidly corrodes from
exposure to moist air and high temperatures. Iron is also the fourth most common element in
Earth's crust by weight and much of Earth's core is thought to be composed of iron. Ninety
percent of all metal that is refined these days is iron according to the Royal Society of
Chemistry. Most of it is used to make steel which is an alloy of iron and carbon which is in turn
used in manufacturing and civil engineering to make reinforced concrete. Stainless steel, which
contains at least 10.5 percent chromium is highly resistant to corrosion. It is used in kitchen
cutlery, appliances and cookware such as stainless steel pans and skillets. The addition of other
elements can provide steel with other useful qualities. For instance, nickel increases its
durability and makes it more resistant to heat and acids; manganese makes it more durable,
whereas tungsten helps it maintain hardness at high temperatures.

HISTORY OF IRON
Iron is one of the elements undoubtedly known to the ancient world. However, iron
objects of great age are much rarer than objects made of gold or silver due to the ease with
which iron corrodes. Beads made from meteoric iron in 3500 BC or earlier were found in
Gerzah, Egypt by G. A. Wainwright. The beads contain 7.5% nickel, which is a signature of
meteoric origin since iron found in the Earth's crust generally has only minuscule nickel
impurities. Items that were likely made of iron by Egyptians date from 3000 to 2500 BC. The
first iron production started in the Middle Bronze Age but it took several centuries before iron
displaced bronze. Samples of smelted iron from Asmar, Mesopotamia and Tall Chagar Bazaar in
northern Syria were made sometime between 3000 and 2700 BC.
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TYPES OF IRON
 WROUGHT IRON:
Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon (less than 0.08%) content in
contrast to cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up
to 2% by weight), which gives it a "grain" resembling wood that is visible when it is etched or
bent to the point of failure. Wrought iron is tough, malleable, ductile, corrosion-resistant and
easily welded. Before the development of effective methods of steelmaking and the availability
of large quantities of steel, wrought iron was the most common form of malleable iron. It was
given the name wrought because it was hammered, rolled or otherwise worked while hot
enough to expel molten slag. The modern functional equivalent of wrought iron is mild or low
carbon steel. Neither wrought iron nor mild steel contain enough carbon to be harden able by
heating and quenching.

Table 2: Properties of wrought iron

Property Value

Ultimate tensile strength [psi (MPa)] 34,000–54,000 (234–372)

Ultimate compression strength [psi (MPa)] 34,000–54,000 (234–372)

Ultimate shear strength [psi (MPa)] 28,000–45,000 (193–310)

Yield point [psi (MPa)] 23,000–32,000 (159–221)

Modulus of elasticity (in tension) [psi (MPa)] 28,000,000 (193,100)

Melting point [°F (°C)] 2,800 (1,540)

7.6–7.9
Specific gravity
7.5–7.8
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 CAST IRON:
Cast iron is a group of iron-carbon alloys with a carbon content greater than 2%.[1]
Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect
its color when fractured. White cast iron has carbide impurities which allow cracks to pass
straight through, grey cast iron has graphite flakes which deflect a passing crack and initiate
countless new cracks as the material breaks, and ductile cast iron has spherical graphite
"nodules" which stop the crack from further progressing. Carbon (C) ranging from 1.8–4 wt.%,
and silicon (Si) 1–3 wt.% are the main alloying elements of cast iron.
Properties of Cast Iron

 STEEL:
Steel is an alloy of iron and carbon and other elements. Because of its high tensile
strength and low cost, it is a major component used in buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships,
automobiles, machines, appliances, and weapons. Iron is the base metal of steel. Iron is able to
take on two crystalline forms (allotropic forms), body centered cubic and face centered cubic,
depending on its temperature. In the body-centered cubic arrangement, there is an iron atom
in the center and eight atoms at the vertices of each cubic unit cell while in the face-centered
cubic, there is one atom at the center of each of the six faces of the cubic unit cell and eight
atoms at its vertices. It is the interaction of the allotropes of iron with the alloying elements,
primarily carbon, that gives steel and cast iron their range of unique properties.This form of
iron is majorly used in construction to make reinforced cement concrete as it shows yielding or
ductility behavior which is the most important phenomenon for the safety of a structure.
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COMPARISON BETWEEN DIFFERENT ALLOYS OF IRON

Primarily iron is the main element while wrought iron, cast iron and steel are its
different alloys and they differ mainly on the basic of amount of carbon. Due to difference in
the amount of carbon, a number of properties of these alloys change with respect to each other
which are shown in the following tables:
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CONCLUSION:
The overall study of iron makes a differentiation between different alloys of iron. Each
alloy has its own specific property which is good than the other or may be bad as compared to
other i.e. steel has good ductility than wrought iron while iron with high carbon content has
more strength as compared to the steel due to more carbon content. In short, we can say that
iron has become a global material which can be used for different types of purposes and it is
reliable material which means the results obtained from iron don’t vary so much i.e. yielding,
tensile strength

REFERENCES:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wrought_iron
• Raghavan, V. (2004). Materials Science and Engineering. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. p. 218. ISBN 81-203-
2455-2.
• Campbell, F.C. (2008). Elements of Metallurgy and Engineering Alloys. Materials Park, Ohio: ASM
International. p. 453. ISBN 978-0-87170-867-0.
• Prawoto, Yunan (2013). Integration of Mechanics into Materials Science Research: A Guide for Material
Researchers in Analytical, Computational and Experimental Methods. Lulu.com. ISBN 9781300712350.
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