Si in Steel

Si contributes to hardening of the ferritic phase in steels and for this reason Si killed
steels are somewhat harder and stiffer than Al killed steels.

In addition to deoxidation, Si also influences the steel in the following ways.

 Si helps increase the strength and the hardness of the steel, but it is less effective
than Mn in these functions.
 Si improves acid resistance and promotes large grain sizes, which cause
increasing magnetic permeability.
 In electrical and magnetic steels, Si helps in promoting desired crystal orientations
and electrical resistivity.
 In some high temperature service steels, Si contributes to their oxidation
resistance.
 In alloy steel grades, Si also increases strength (but not plasticity) when quenched
and tempered.
 Si also has a mild effect on hardenability of steel.
 In low C steels, Si is generally detrimental to surface quality. This problem is
magnified in low C resulphurized steels.
 Si has the particularity of impairing hot and cold workability.
 Si is detrimental to tool life in machining as it forms hard abrasive particles which
increase tool wear and thus lower the machinability of steel.

Si has only a moderate effect on the hardenability of steel. Its multiplying factor is
between that of Cr (higher) and nickel (Ni) (lower). Si is therefore not added to steels for
deep hardening, its function in heat treated steels being primarily to strengthen the
ferrite in which carbides appear. Si is a graphitizer and, like Ni, has limited application in
tool steels. It is used, however, in a class of oil hardening graphitic tool steels, in one
grade of air hardening graphitic tool steel, and two grades of shock resisting tool steels.
Si lowers the eutectoid C content but raises the eutectoid temperature. It is a ferrite
former and when present in sufficient concentration, closes the g-loop completely. The
effect is strongly dependent on C content (2.25 % Si closes the g-loop at less than 0.02
% C, but some austenite remains when C increases beyond 0.05 %). Si may increase
the tendency to 260 deg C embrittlement and has a slight, though detrimental, effect on
temper embrittlement. It raises the impact transition temperature (ITT) but does
contribute to solid solution strengthening.

Si confers a modest resistance to tempering in heat treatable alloy steels. It does not
produce secondary hardening.

In welding, Si is detrimental to surface quality, especially in the low C, resulphurized

grades. It aggravates cracking tendencies when the carbon content is fairly high. For
best welding condition, Si content normally should not exceed 0.10 %. However,
amounts up to 0.30 % are not as serious as the high sulphur (S) or phosphorus (P)
content is.

Si dissolves in iron and tends to strengthen it. Weld metal usually contains
approximately 0.50 % Si as a deoxidizer. Some filler metals may contain up to 1 % to
provide enhanced cleaning and deoxidation for welding on contaminated surfaces.
When these filler metals are used for welding on clean surfaces, the resulting weld
metal strength is markedly increased. The resulting decrease in ductility can aggravate
cracking problems.

For galvanizing purposes, steels containing more than 0.04 % silicon can greatly affect
the thickness and appearance of the galvanized coating. This result in thick coatings
consisting mainly zinc-iron alloys and the surface has a dark and dull finish. But it
provides as much corrosion protection as a shiny galvanized coating where the outer
layer is pure zinc.

Applications
The solid solution strengthening properties of Si are exploited in several classes of
steels including HSLA (high strength low alloy) grades and ultra high strength steels
containing 1.6 % Si. Si is present in heat treatable alloy steels because these steels are
always produced in the fully killed condition.

Si improves high temperature oxidation resistance and is therefore intentionally added

to heat resisting Cr-Mo (molybdenum) and Cr-Mo-V (vanadium) steels. It is also present
in high temperature valve and spring steels for automotive engine applications. Both
ferritic and austenitic stainless steels contain about 1 % Si for oxidation resistance.
Stainless steel grade Type 314 contains 2 % silicon for this purpose.

Electrical steels with high Si content are widely used in alternating current magnetic
circuits. In fact Si is the principal alloying element in electrical steels used in
transformers, electric motor laminations, generators and relays. Si confers a relatively
high permeability, raises electrical resistivity and lowers hysteresis (core) loss, all
beneficial trends in these materials. Generally, core losses decrease (quality is raised)
as Si level increases. Electrical steels must be very clean (free from inclusions) and
often require such special processing as pack rolling, frequent intermediate anneals
plus, in the case of grain oriented grades, a final recrystallization anneal in dry
hydrogen.