CE 2101: Engineering Materials

PART –B [1.5 Credits]

Lecture 2

Rumana Afrin
Assistant Professor,
Department of Civil Engineering, United International University
 STEEL
Final/Finished Products
✓Pig iron is not fit for any mechanical use and hence converted into Ferrous metals.
✓Ferrous metals are of three types: Wrought iron, Cast iron and Steel.
 Wrought Iron
✓Commercially available pure iron.
✓An iron alloy with a very low carbon.
✓The carbon contributes not more than 0.15 % of its weight.
✓It is tough, malleable, ductile and weld able.
✓Good resistance to fatigue and corrosion.

❑ Advantage
❑ Type
❑ Use
 Cast Iron

✓Cast iron is ferrous alloy, contains more than 95% Fe.

✓Carbon and Silicon are main alloying elements.
✓The carbon contributes 2.1 to 4% of its weight.
✓The Silicon contributes 1 to 3% of its weight.
✓Brittle in nature.
✓Strong in compression but weak in tension.

❑ Advantage
❑ Type
❑ Use
Steel

✓An iron base alloy

✓Main alloy element is carbon.
✓The carbon contributes 0.02 to 1.7 % of its weight.
✓Other alloying elements are manganese, Sulphure, Silicon, Phosphorus etc.
✓Other alloying elements may be added to modify the characteristics of steel
✓Carbon always acts as a hardener and strengthener but at the same time it reduces the ductility.
✓Very strong in tension. So tensile strength is considered to be the most important property of steel.
 ❑ Physical Properties

• Important Physical Properties of steel are strength, brittleness

and ductility

1. Effect of Carbon

✓Increases the tensile strength of steel

✓Increases the hardness of steel.
✓ Increases the difficulty of welding steel.
✓Makes steel easier to harden with heat treatments.
✓Lowers the temperature required to heat treat steel.
✓Decreases the ductility of steel.

2. Effect of other alloy elements

3. Effect of Heat treatment

STEEL
Classification of Steel
 American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) classification
A. Classification according to the composition

1. Carbon Steel
2. Alloy Steel
3. Stainless Steel
4. Tool Steel

1. Carbon Steel
✓Main alloying element is carbon.
✓Contain trace amounts of other alloying elements [<0.4%]
✓Further categorized into three groups
▪Low carbon steel [ up to 0.3% C]
▪Medium Carbon Steel [ 0.3-0.6 % C]
▪High carbon Steel [ more than 0.6 % C]
Low carbon Steel
✓It contains less than 0.3 % carbon.
✓A decrease in carbon content improves ductility.
✓These steels are hot worked.
✓Low carbon steels are not hardened appreciably by
hardening process of heat treatment.
✓Produced for beam and structural application.

Low Carbon Steel

Medium carbon Steel

✓It contains between 0.3 -0.6% carbon

✓Medium steels are stronger than low carbon steels.
✓Can be further strengthened by heat treatment.
✓Fatigue resistant.
✓Used for machine components requiring high strength and
fatigue resistance.

Medium Carbon Steel

 High carbon Steel
✓It contains more than 0.6% carbon up to 1.5%.
✓Very strong.
✓These steels have high hardness and low toughness.
✓Used for compressive loading.

High Carbon Steel

2. Alloy Steel
✓Alloy steels are steels whose properties mainly attributed to the presence of one or more elements
other than carbon.
✓Alloying elements are Mn, Si, Ni etc.
✓Proportion of alloying elements are changed to change properties of steel i.e. ductility, strength etc.

❑ Categories

❑ Advantage

✓Greater harden-ability
✓Less distortion and cracking
✓Greater ductility at high strength
✓Greater high temperature strength
✓Better machinability at high hardness
✓High elastic ratio and endurance strength.
3. Stainless Steel
✓Highly alloyed steels
✓Possessing unusual resistance to corrosion and atmospheric weathering and elevated temperatures.
✓Contain 10-20% chromium.
✓Polished to a mirror finish.
✓They are expensive
✓Further categorized into three groups
▪Austenitic
▪Ferritic
▪Martensitic

4. Tool Steel
✓Developed to form, cut or change the shape of a material into a finished or semi-finished product.
✓Contain Co, Mb, V etc.
✓Used for cutting and drilling equipment.
B. Classification according to the commercial use

Mild Steel
✓Contains carbon by 0.16 to 0.29 %.
✓Ductile and malleable in nature.
✓Relatively low tensile strength.
✓Hardness 125 BHN.
✓Modulus of elasticity is 30000 ksi
✓Unit weight is 490 pcf.

High Strength Steel [Low alloy steel]

✓Contains carbon by 0.05 to 0.25 %.
✓Contains 2% of Mn and small amount of Co, Ni, V, Cr, Mo etc.
✓Greater resistance to corrosion.
✓Greater hardness.
✓Used in cutting materials i.e. blades, saws etc.
Galvanized Steel
✓Steel coated with Zn.
✓Undergoes the reaction of Zn to ZnO and then ZnO to ZnCO3 when
exposed to atmosphere.
✓ZnCO3 is strong material that stops further corrosion

Scrap
✓Scrap consists of recyclable materials left over from
product manufacturing and consumption.
✓They can be re-melted and re-casted to new form.
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) classification
1. Structural Carbon Steels [ASTM A-36, A-529]
2. High-Strength Low-alloy [ASTM A-572, A-242, A-588]
3. High-Yield Strength, Quenched and Tempered Alloy [ASTM A-514]
Structural steels can also be classified as
✓Hot rolling (AISC) :W-, L-, M-, C-, MC- shaped
✓Cold forming (AISC) : Steel Decking, Steel Studs, Prestressing Steel
✓Non-Prestressed Reinforcement (ACI) : Deformed Bar, Smooth wire
✓Prestressed Reinforcement (ACI): Tendons
 Heat Treatment
Thermo Mechanical Treatment [TMT]
✓Steel bars get intensive cooling immediately after rolling.
✓Temperature is suddenly reduced to make surface layer hard, the internal core is hot at the same time.
✓Then bars are kept at atmospheric condition with a temperature gradient through its cross section
✓Due to further cooling in atmosphere and heat from the core, the tempering takes place.
✓These bars therefore exhibit a variation in microstructure in their cross section,
✓Having strong, tough, tempered martensite in the surface layer of the bar, and a refined, tough and ductile
ferrite and pearlite core.
✓This process is expected to improve properties such as yield strength, ductility and toughness of TMT bars.
Key features of TMT bars
✓Withstands temperatures up to 500 °C
✓The soft ferrite-pearlite core enables the bar to become ductile.
✓TMT bars are most preferred because of its flexible nature.
✓They have fine welding features.
✓External ribs running across the entire length of TMT bar give superior bonding strength between the bar and
the concrete.
✓A high tensile strength and better elongation value gives great savings.
✓TMT bars, due to its thermo mechanical treatment are very highly rust and corrosion resistant and is best
suited in the humid and coastal areas.
Thank You