Iron and Steel
Introduction
Steels are iron-carbon alloys that may contain appreciable
concentrations of other alloying elements.
The mechanical properties are sensitive to the content of
carbon, which is normally less than 1.0 wt%.
Some of the common steels are classified according to
carbon concentration namely,
low-, medium-, and high-carbon types.
For alloy steels, more alloying elements are intentionally
added in specific concentrations.
In this module, we will talk about steel making and the
composition and structure of plain-carbon steels.
Smelting
Smelting of iron ore takes place in the blast-furnace. A modern blast-
furnace is something like 60m high and 7.5m in diameter at the base,
and may produce from 2000 to 10000 tons of iron per day. The smelting
operation involves two main reactions:
1. The chemical reduction of iron ore by carbon monoxide gas (CO)
arising from the burning coke:
2. Lime (from limestone added with the furnace charge) combines with
many of the impurities and also the otherwise infusible earthy waste
(mainly silica SiO2) in the ore to form a fluid slag which will run from the
furnace:
Steelmaking
Modern steelmaking processes can be broken into two categories:
Primary and secondary steelmaking.
Primary steelmaking involves converting liquid iron from a blast furnace
and steel scrap into steel via basic oxygen steelmaking or melting scrap
steel and/or direct reduced iron in an electric arc furnace.
BASIC OXYGEN PROCESS
Basic oxygen steelmaking (Figure 11.2) is a primary steelmaking process
for converting the molten pig iron into steel by blowing oxygen through
a lance over the molten pig iron inside the converter.
ELECTRIC ARC FURNACE
Electric arc furnace (Figure 11.3) employs
carbon electrodes which strike an arc onto
the charge. Lime and mill scale are added
in order to produce a slag which removes
most of the carbon, silicon, manganese
and phosphorus. This is run off and is
often replaced by a slag containing lime
and anthracite which effectively removes
sulphur.
Composition of steel
Plain-carbon steels are those alloys of iron and carbon which contain up
to 1.7% carbon. Carbon steels can be classified into groups:
• Dead-mild carbon steel with up to 0.15% carbon,
• Mild or low-carbon steel 0.15 – 0.25% carbon,
• Medium-carbon steel 0.25 – 0.60% carbon,
• High-carbon steel with 0.60 -1.50% carbon.
The Iron-Iron Carbide (Fe-Fe3C) Equilibrium Diagram
The Steel Portion of the Iron-Iron Carbide (Fe-Fe3C) Equilibrium Diagram
The structure and various phases of plain-carbon steels
Below 910°C, pure iron has a body-centered cubic (BCC) crystal
structure; but on heating the metal to a temperature above 910°C, its
structure changes to one which is face-centered cubic (FCC).
Now face-centered cubic (FCC) iron will take quite a lot of carbon- up to
2.0% in fact – into solid solution,
whereas body-centered cubic (BCC) iron will dissolve scarcely any – a
maximum of only 0.02%.
Since the solid solubility of carbon in iron alters in this way, it follows
that changes in the structure will also occur on heating or
cooling through the polymorphic transformation
temperature.
The structure and various phases of plain-carbon steels (cont’d)
• Ferrite: An interstitial solid solution of carbon in body-centered cubic
(BCC) α-iron, containing a maximum of 0.03% carbon at 723 °C.
It is soft, magnetic, ductile and readily cold-worked with low
strength.
• Pearlite: This is the eutectoid structure consisting of alternate
laminations of ferrite and cementite. It contains 0.83% carbon and is
formed by the breakdown of the austenite solid solution at 695 °C.
• Cementite: a hard brittle compound of iron and carbon with the
formula Fe3C. This may exist in the free state usually as a grain
boundary film, or as a constituent of the eutectoid pearlite.
• Austenite: an interstitial solid solution of
carbon in face-centered cubic (FCC) γ-iron,
containing a maximum of 2.14% carbon at
1125 °C.
It is soft and non-magnetic, and only exists
in plain carbon steels above the upper critical
range. It may, however, occur at room
temperatures in certain alloy steels.
Hypo-eutectoid steels, i.e. those containing less
than 0.83% carbon – primary ferrite and
pearlite.
Eutectoid steels, containing exactly 0.83%
carbon – completely pearlite.
Hyper-eutectoid steels, i.e. those containing
more than 0.83% carbon – primary cementite
and pearlite.
