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Heat Treatments &

Hardenability
Dr. Mamdouh Salem

References: most of the figures are from:

• “Materials Science and Engineering, An Introduction”, Callister et al.
• “The science and Engineering of Materials”, Askeland et al.
Cairo University, Faculty of Engineering Dr. Mamdouh Salem 1

Annealing processes
• Annealing refers to a heat treatment in which a material is exposed to an elevated
temperature for an extended time period and then slowly cooled.

• Annealing is carried out to:

1. Relieve stresses.
2. Increase softness, ductility, and toughness.
3. Produce a specific microstructure.

• Stress Relief: internal residual stresses can develop due to plastic deformation, rapid
cooling or phase transformation. These stresses can be eliminated through heating
(but not to high temperature affects the microstructure), then cooling in air to room
temperature.
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Process annealing
• Process annealing is the heat treatment that
is used with steels with less than about 0.25%
C in order to cancel the effects of cold
working (to soften and increase the ductility
of a previously strain-hardened metal).

• Recovery and recrystallization processes are

allowed to occur.

• The process anneal is done 80°C to 170°C

below the A1 (eutectoid) temperature.

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Normalizing
• Steels that have been plastically deformed
usually consist of relatively large and
distorted pearlite grains.
• Normalizing is used to refine the grains and
produce a more uniform and desirable grain
size distribution.
• Fine pearlitic steels have higher strength
and toughness than coarse-grained ones.
• This is done by heating 55°C (above A3 for hypoeutectoid, but above Acm for
hypereutectoid alloys).
• After some time, the alloy transforms completely to austenite, which is called
austenitizing.
• The treatment ends by air cooling (relatively rapid cooling), where finer grains of fine
pearlite form.
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Full annealing
• Full annealing is usually used for low- and
medium-carbon steels that will be machined
or will experience extensive plastic
deformation, to increase their ductility.
• Steel is initially heated (30°C above A3) to
produce homogeneous austenite (FCC 𝛾-
phase).
• Steel is then allowed to cool slowly in a
furnace, producing coarse pearlite.

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• For annealing, austenitizing of hypoeutectoid steels is

conducted about 30°C above the A3, producing 100% 𝛾.
• However, austenitizing of a hypereutectoid steel is done at
about 30°C above the A1, producing austenite and Fe3C.
• This process prevents the formation of a brittle, continuous
film of Fe3C at the grain boundaries that occurs on slow
cooling from the 100% 𝛾 region.

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Spheroidizing
• Medium- and high-carbon steels are usually too hard to
conveniently machine or plastically deform.
• These steels may be heat-treated or annealed to develop the
spheroidite structure, which has a maximum softness and
ductility and are easily machined or deformed.
• Spheroidizing is carried out by heating just below the eutectoid
temperature for 15-25 hours.
• The Fe3C phase morphology changes into large, spherical particles
in order to reduce boundary area (reduce the free energy).
• The rate at which spheroidite forms depends on prior
microstructure.
• For example, it is slowest for pearlite, and the finer the pearlite,
the more rapid the rate.
• Also, prior cold work increases the spheroidizing reaction rate.
(the higher the internal energy, the higher the transformation rate).
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• The effect of carbon and heat

treatment on the properties of
plain carbon steels.

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Isothermal heat treatments

• Austempering:
• Is the isothermal transformation heat treatment
used to produce bainite.
• It involves austenitizing the steel, quenching to
some temperature below the nose of the TTT curve,
and holding, at that temperature until all of the
austenite transforms to bainite.

• Isothermal anneal:
• Is the isothermal transformation heat treatment
used to produce pearlite.
• Isothermal anneal may give more uniform
properties, since the cooling rates and
microstructure obtained during annealing and The austempering and isothermal
normalizing vary across the cross-section of the anneal heat treatments in a 1080 steel
steel.
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Retained austenite
• A large volume expansion happens when martensite forms
from austenite.
• Martensite plates surround and isolate small pools of austenite.
• Since martensite is strong and resists austenite expansion,
either the existing martensite cracks or the austenite remains
trapped in the structure as retained austenite.
Retained austenite (white)
• After tempering, tempered martensite is softer than martensite trapped between martensite
and therefore deforms to allow the expansion of retained needles (black)
austenite when transforming into martensite.
• This is a problem since the steel contains more of the hard,
brittle martensite, and a second tempering step may be needed.
• This problem is more serious for high carbon steels, where Mf
temperature can be below zero.
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Residual stresses and

cracking
• When steels are quenched, the surface of the
quenched steel cools rapidly and transforms
to martensite.
• When the austenite in the center later
transforms (expands), the hard surface is
placed in tension, while the center is
compressed.
• If the residual stresses exceed the yield The marquenching
strength, quench cracks form at the surface. heat treatment,
• To avoid this, we can first cool to just above designed to reduce
the Ms and hold until the temperature quench cracking.
equalizes in the steel and then quench, which
permits all of the steel to transform to
martensite at about the same time.
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Hardenability of steels

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Hardenability of steels
• Heat treatment of steels aims mainly to form martensite through rapid cooling.
• The formation of any pearlite and/or bainite will result in other than the best combination
of mechanical characteristics.
• During the quenching treatment, it is impossible to cool the specimen at a uniform rate
throughout. The surface will always cool more rapidly than interior regions.
• This may result in a possible variation of microstructure and properties with position
within a specimen.
• The successful heat treating of steels to produce a predominantly martensitic
microstructure throughout the cross section depends mainly on three factors:
1. the composition of the alloy.
2. the type and character of the quenching medium (cooling rate).
3. the size and shape of the specimen.

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Hardenability
• Hardenability is related to the influence of alloy composition on the ability of a
steel alloy to transform to martensite for a particular quenching treatment.
• In other words, this term is used to describe the ability of an alloy to be hardened by
the formation of martensite as a result of a given heat treatment.
• A steel alloy that has a high hardenability is one that hardens, or forms martensite,
not only at the surface but to a large degree throughout the entire interior.

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Effect of alloying elements

• Alloying elements are added to Improve the hardenability.
• This is obvious when comparing the CCT curves for 1080 and 4340 steels.
• 1080 steel requires a cooling rate more than 140°C/s to obtain 100% martensite.
• 4340 steel requires a cooling rate more than 8°C/s to obtain 100% martensite.

1080 4340

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Effect of alloying elements

• Alloying elements not only affect the critical
cooling rate, but also the eutectoid
temperature and composition.

• The top figure shows the effect of adding 6%

manganese on the stability ranges of the
phases in the eutectoid portion of the Fe-Fe3C
phase diagram.

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Effect of alloying elements

• Alloying elements also reduce the rate of
tempering compared with that of a plain
carbon steel.

• This permits the alloy steels to operate more

successfully at higher temperatures than plain
carbon steels.

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Jominy end-quench test

• This test is used to
measure the hardenability
of alloys.
• A sample is heated to form
100% austenite, then
water-sprayed from one
side.
• The hardness is then
measured along the sample
length.
• Plotting the hardness as a
function of the distance
gives the hardenability
Curve.
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Hardenability Curves
• The quenched end has the highest hardness, since
it usually transforms to 100% martensite.
• As the distance from the end increases, the actual
cooling rate decreases, resulting in the formation
of pearlite or bainite.
• A steel that is highly hardenable will retain large
hardness values for relatively long distances.

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Hardenability curves
• Jominy distance is related to the cooling rate.
• For alloys having the same carbon%, the
quenched end hardness is almost the same.
• This is because the microstructure is 100%
martensite, and its hardness depends only on
the carbon content.
• For plain carbon steel, the microstructure after
distance of almost 7mm is all pearlite, while
for other alloys it is a mix of bainite and
martensite.
• Addition of alloying elements allow
martensite to form at relatively low cooling
rates.

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Jominy distance
• Since Jominy test is a standard test in which the
sample temperature, the water temperature and
the water flow rate are controlled, a direct relation
between Jominy distance and the cooling rate can
be obtained.

• The direct relation between Jominy distance and

the cooling rate is shown in the table.

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Grossman chart
• The severity of quenching is
represented by the H-coefficient,
which is related to the cooling rate.
• For a given quenching
medium, Grossman chart can be used
to determine the hardness at the
center of a round bar.
• Based on the bar diameter and H-
coefficient, we get the Jominy distance
at the center of the bar.
• We can then determine the hardness
from the hardenability curve of the
steel alloy.

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Example

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Example

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Sample size effect

• Knowing the equivalent distance
(or the cooling rate), the
hardenability curve can be used to
plot the hardness as a function of
the radial distance.
• The effects of alloy type and
specimen size are obviously
noticed.
• As the sample diameter increases,
the surface cooling rate may
decrease due to the higher amount Radial hardness profiles for (a) 50mm diameter
of heat flowing from inside to the cylindrical 1040 and 4140 steel specimens quenched
quenching medium in mildly agitated water, and (b) 50 and 75 mm
diameter cylindrical specimens of 4140 steel
quenched in mildly agitated oil.
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Sample size effect

• For cylindrical steel alloy
specimens that have been quenched,
surface hardness depends not only
upon alloy composition and
quenching medium, but also upon
specimen diameter.
• Therefore, the mechanical
characteristics of steel specimens
that have been quenched and
subsequently tempered will also be
a function of specimen diameter.
• The figure shows the tensile
strength for an oil-quenched 4140
steel for four diameters.
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Hardenability band curves

• For a specific alloy, there are unavoidable
variations in the composition and
the average grain size.
• Therefore, the hardenability curve is usually
plotted as a band representing the maximum
and minimum values that would be expected
for the particular alloy.
• The hardenability band in the figure is
plotted for an 8640 steel alloy.

• For simplicity, we here deal with the

hardenability curve as just lines.

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