Steel

Non-Ferrous vs. Ferrous Metals

• Non-Ferrous Metals
– Iron is not the main constituent
– Aluminum, Brass, Copper (can be remembered as ABC),
and Titanium
– Specified for structural applications requiring reduced
weight, higher strength, nonmagnetic properties, higher
melting points, or resistance to corrosion
• Ferrous Metals
– Iron is the main constituent
– Carbon Steel, Stainless Steel, (both alloys; mixtures of
metals), and Wrought Iron.

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 Introduction – Steel
3rd most used construction material after concrete and
asphalt
• Iron ore  1500 B.C. primitive furnace: iron
 18th century blast furnace: mass iron production
 mid-1800s Bessemer converter: steel
Difference:
• Concrete & asphalt
– Engineers and contractors directly influence strength, stability, &
durability
• Steel
– Civil engineer has less flexibility in specifying steel

Steel Products
• Structural steel : structural shapes, plates etc
• Cold-formed steel : trusses, decking - cold-forming of
sheet steel into desired shapes
• Fastening products : structural connections – bolts,
nuts, washers
• Reinforcing steel : rebar in concrete
• Miscellaneous

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 Section Shapes

Wide flange
W A992 I beam Channel
HP A36 S A36 C, MC A36
M A36

Equal leg angle

Unequal leg angle
L A36
L A36

Tee Sheet piling Rail

Cold Formed Steel Shapes

• Structural design requires special considerations

due to
– buckling
– corrosion

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 Reinforcing Steel

ASTM Reinforcing Bar Identification

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 Composition of Steel
Iron (Fe)
– From mined ores
– Ores also contain other elements
Carbon (C)
– From coal
– Plays key role in microstructure and properties
Limestone
– Flux material, used to remove impurities
Manganese, phosphorus, sulfur, and silicon
– Added to produce steel of different characteristics

Iron Ore

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 Iron Ore Mining

Behavior
• Properties and behavior highly influenced by:
– Carbon content
– Use of alloying elements
– Rate of cooling
– Subsequent heat treatments

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 Stress-Strain

High Strength Steel

Stress

Fu

Mild Steel
Fy
Strain Hardening – increasing the
Yield Plateau
strength by straining the microstructure
E

Strain

Steel Production
• Production process consists three phases (figure
shown in next slide)
– Reducing iron ore to pig iron

– Refining pig iron (and scrap steel from recycling) to steel

– Forming the steel into products

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 Steel Production

Steel Production :
Reducing iron ore to pig iron
• Coal, limestone, and iron ore are used to produce pig
iron
• The coal, after transformation to coke, supplies
carbon used to reduce iron oxides in the ore
• Limestone is used to help remove impurities
• The iron is magnetically extracted from the waste,
and the extracted material is formed into pellets and
fired. The processed ore contains about 65% iron.
• Reduction of the ore to pig iron is accomplished in a
blast furnace

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 Steel Production :
Reducing iron ore to pig iron
• The ore is heated in the presence of carbon. Oxygen
in the ore reacts with carbon to form gases. A flux is
used to help remove impurities.
• The molten iron, with an excess of carbon in
solution, collects at the bottom of the furnace. The
impurities, slag, float on top of the molten pig iron.

Steel Production :
Refining pig iron to steel
• The excess carbon, along with other impurities are
removed to produce high-quality steel.
• Furnaces are used for refining pig iron to steel
– Basic oxygen : remove excess carbon by reacting the
carbon with oxygen to form gases. Lances circulate oxygen
through the molten material. The process is continued
until all impurities are removed and the desired carbon
content is achieved.
– Electric Arc : use an electric arc between carbon electrodes
to melt and refine the steel. These plants require a
tremendous amount of energy, and are used primarily to
recycle scrap steel.

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 Steel Production :
Refining pig iron to steel
• Molten steel is transferred to the ladle. Alloying
elements and additional agents can be added either
in the furnace or the ladle.
• Oxygen may become dissolved in the liquid metal. As
the steel solidifies, the oxygen can combine with
carbon to form carbon monoxide bubbles that are
trapped in the steel and can act as initiation points
for failure.
• Deoxidizing agents, such as aluminum, ferrosilicon
and manganese, can eliminate the formation of the
carbon monoxide bubbles

Steel Production :
Forming the steel into products
• The molten steel, with the desired chemical
composition, is then either cast into ingots (large blocks
of steel) or cast continuously into a desired shape.
• Continuous casting with hot rolling is more energy
efficient than casting ingots, as the ingots must be
reheated prior to shaping the steel into the final
product.
• Cold-formed steel is produced from sheets or coils of
hot rolled steel. No heat is required to form the shapes
(unlike hot-rolled steel), and thus the name cold-
formed steel. Cold-formed steel members and other
products are thinner, lighter, and easier to produce.

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 Heat Treatment
• basic process is to heat the steel to a specific
temperature, hold the temperature for a specified
period of time, then cool the material at a specified
rate.
• Common heat treatments
– Annealing
– Normalizing
– Hardening
– Tempering

Heat Treatment : Annealing

• Objectives of annealing are to refine the grain, soften
the steel, remove internal stresses, remove gases,
increase ductility and toughness, and change
electrical and magnetic properties
• Full annealing
– heating the steel to about 50°C above the austenitic
temperature line and holding the temperature until all the
steel transforms into either austenite or austenite–
cementite.
– cooled at a rate of about 20°C per hour in a furnace to a
temperature of about 680°C, followed by natural
convection cooling to room temperature

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 Heat Treatment : Annealing
• Full annealing
– The slow cooling rate ensures uniform properties of the
treated steel.
– The steel is soft and ductile.
• Process annealing
– Used to treat work-hardened parts made with low carbon
steel (i.e., less than 0.25 percent carbon).
– Heated to about 700°C and held long enough to allow
recrystallization of the ferrite phase
– Refinement of the size, shape, and distribution of the grain
structure

Heat Treatment : Annealing

• Stress relief annealing
– Material is heated to 600 to 650°C, held at temperature
for about one hour, and then slowly cooled in still air
– Used to reduce residual stresses
• Spheroidization
– Used to improve the ability of high carbon (i.e., more than
0.6 percent carbon) steel to be machined or cold worked.
– Improves abrasion resistance

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 Heat Treatment : Normalizing
• Similar to annealing, with a slight difference in the
temperature and the rate of cooling.
• Cooling is faster than that used for full annealing
• Steel is normalized by heating to about 60°C
(110°F) above the austenite line and then cooling
under natural convection. The material is then air
cooled.
• Shapes with varying thicknesses results in the
normalized parts having less uniformity
• Effective process for structural plate with uniform
thickness

Heat Treatment : Hardening

• Steel is hardened by heating it to a temperature
above the transformation range and holding it until
austenite is formed
• The steel is then quenched (cooled rapidly) by
plunging it into, or spraying it with, water, brine, or
oil
• Surface of the material is harder and more brittle
than the interior of the element, creating
nonhomogeneous characteristics
• Hardening must be followed by tempering.

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 Heat Treatment : Tempering
• After quenching, the steel is cooled to about 40°C
then reheated by immersion in either oil or nitrate
salts. The steel is maintained at the elevated
temperature for about two hours and then cooled in
still air.
• Tempering is performed to improve ductility and
toughness of quench-hardened steel due to it’s an
undesirable brittleness

Heat Treatment Temperatures

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 Steel Alloys
• 250,000 steel alloys (200 civil engineering applications)
• Steel alloy is steel + alloying metal to change properties
– hardenability
– corrosion resistance
– machinability
– ductility
– strength
• Construction steels are low and medium carbon plain
steels.
• Stainless steel for highly corrosive uses
– add chromium, nickel, etc.

Alloying Elements

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 Structural Steel

Cold formed
cladding

Hot rolled
structural
shapes

ASTM Structural Steel and Applicable Structural Shapes

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 Section Shapes

Wide flange
W A992 I beam Channel
HP A36 S A36 C, MC A36
M A36

Equal leg angle

Unequal leg angle
L A36
L A36

Tee Sheet piling Rail

Mechanical Testing of Steel:

Tension Test
• Determine yield strength, ultimate (tensile) strength,
elongation, and reduction of area (Poisson's Ratio)
• Plate, sheet, round rod, wire, and tube can be tested.
Typical specimens are round or rectangular
• Axial load at a specified rate is applied and deformation
is measured.
• Stress-Strain diagram is developed

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 Tension Test : Testing Set Up
Extensometer
Crosshead

Specimen

Fixed beam Threaded end

Tension Test : Sample Loaded to Failure

Cup and cone Neck area

failure

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Typical Stress-Strain Behavior of Mild Steel
• σ- is linear elastic up to proportional limit.
• Then non-linear elastic up to elastic limit = yield point =
strain increases at constant stress.
• Then plastic deformation until failure.

Effect of Carbon on Mechanical Behavior

• Higher the
carbon content,
higher the yield
strength, but
lower the
ductility.
• E is constant
to 29,000 ksi

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 Stress-Strain Behavior
Example 1. A tension test for a steel alloy results in
the stress–strain diagram shown in Figure. Calculate
the modulus of elasticity and the yield strength based
on a 0.2% offset. Identify on the graph the ultimate
stress and the fracture stress.
Original curve

Magnified curve

Scale of magnified curve

Mechanical Testing of Steel:

Charpy V Notch Impact Test
• Measure toughness or fracture energy at different
temperatures
• Specimen of rectangular cross-section with a V notch
• Charpy machine with a pendulum that breaks the
specimen
• By measuring the height of the swing arm after striking
the specimen, the energy required to fracture is
computed (higher head = less energy absorbed)
• Energy absorbed is high at high temperature (ductile) and
low at low temperature (brittle)

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 Charpy V Notch Impact Test Setup

Loss of Toughness with Reduction in

Temperature

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 Mechanical Testing of Steel:
Hardness Test
• Measures resistance to small dents
and scratches
• Need very high hardness for many
machine parts and tools
• Spring-loaded indenter (hardened
steel penetrating ball) is forced into
the surface of the material with a
specified load and rate.
• Depth or size of indentation is related
to hardness number
• Rockwell hardness number Rockwell hardness tester

Questions?

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