491

CONSTRUCTION STEELS

EFFECT OF C H R O M I U M A N D NICKEL
O N T O U G H N E S S OF STEEL
Dr. Tech. So. A. P. GULYAYEV

It is widely believed that alloying elements toughen The c a r b o n - f l e e a l l o y s contained 0. 030 -- 0. 035% C;
steel. Strictly speaking, this is incorrect, particuarly with 0.05 -- 0.07% St; 0.03 -- 0.06% Mn; 0.01 -- 0.02% S;
regard to steels suited for heat treatment [i]. 0. 005 -- 0. 008% 1); 0.07 -- 0.15% Cu. The s t e e l s contained
0.39 -- 0.41% C; 0.60 -- 0.66% Mn; 0.26 -- 0.36% St;
In most cases an increase in the alloying with identical o. 02 - o. 03% S; o. 018 - o. 025% P.
heat treatment improves the strength and reduces the duc-
tility and toughness. Similar toughening can also be obtained In the c a s e of the c a r b o n - f r e e a l l oys t h e f e r r i t e g r a i n s i z e
by other means -- reduction of the tempering temperature. b e c a m e f i n e r a s the content of alloying" e l e m e n t was i n c r e a s e d
It has been demonstrated frequently that, given equal or the cooling r a t e was i n c r e a s e d (Table 1), s i n c e both
strength, the other properties of steels differing widely in f a c t o r s promot e the T --~ ~ t r a n s f o r m a t i o n at a l o w e r t e m -
composition are identical (this relates to doubly heat-treated p e r a t u r e . To produce a high p e r c e n t a g e of f e r r i t e g r a m s ,
steels, i.e., quenched plus tempered, provided the alloying all the a l l oys h e r e heated at 920 ~ and cooled at different
ensures full hardenability in all the steels compared). rates. The cooling r a t e was s e l e c t e d in a c c o r d a n c e with
Despite the same mechanical properties, the structural the da t a in Table 1.
strength of various steel parts is not the same: steels with
different compositions show different brittle strength TABLEI
(resistance to separation). Hence the most important aspect
of the theory of alloying steel consists in study of the effect FERRITE GRAIN SIZE AND HARDNESS OF CARBON-FREE
of the alloying elements on the brittle trength. The char- ALLOYS
acteristic of brittle strength usually taken is the temperature
of t r a n s i t i o n to the s t a t e of cold s h o r t n e s s during i m p a c t
Content of c h r o m i u m or ni c ke l
t e s t s of s p e c i m e n s with soft notches.
in %
Cooling
In the present paper *, we studied the effect of chromium
and nickel on the ductile properties of ferrite (carbon-free 0 t 112 5-I-v-
iron; 0.03% C) and improved medium-carbon steel (about
o. 4% c). Alloys containin c h r o m i u m

R e s e a r c h of t h i s kind has been conducted by a l a r g e In furna c e 6 I 7--8

43 36 37 42 49 55
n u m b e r of i n v e s t i g a t o r s , but due attention has n e v e r been
given to the p r e p a r a t i o n of the s p e c i m e n s ; the t e s t s p e c i -
m ens have u s u a l l y undergone the s a m e t r e a t m e n t and have
exhibited different s t r u c t u r e s and s t r e n g t h s on account of
In air
48 41
5
44 49 ~ # 81 758
the d ifferen ce in composition.
6 M M ] M
F o r ex amp le, it is d e m o n s t r a t e d in [2] that the b r i t t l e In w a t e r
61 63 75
t r a n s i t i o n t h r e s h o l d i s g r e a t l y affected, not by alloying, but
by the s i z e of the f e r r i t e g r a i n . T h e r e a r e no a v a i l a b l e
data on the effect of a11oyiag e l e m e n t s on the ductile p r o p - Alloys containing n i c k e l
e r t i e s of f e r r i t e (brittle t r a n s i t i o n t h r e s h o l d ) , o r on the
ductile p r o p e r t i e s of s t e e l h e a t - t r e a t e d to produce the s a m e
stren gth.

The f i r s t s t a g e in our work was to p r e p a r e s p e c i m e n s

In furnace
43 47 51 73 ~ 78
-4
for the investig ation. Our a i m was to produce an i d e n t i c a l In air
48 52 55 77
s t r u c t u r e (of the c a r b o n - f r e e alloys) and an i d e n t i c a l s o r b i t e
h a r d n e s s (of the steel). In such a c a s e the effect of the
e l e m e n t w i l l only show up through action on the fine s t r u c -
In water 61 63 78
t u r e of the alpha so lid solution, and t h e r e w i l l be no question
of i n d i r e c t influence by the e l e m e n t through g r a i n r e f i n e -
ment, delay in softening during t e m p e r i n g , etc. The follow- Note: 1. The top line shows the g r a i n s i z e a c c ordi ng to
ing l a b o r a t o r y m e l t s w e r e r e p a i r e d . the s t a n d a r d s c a l e , and the b o ~ o m line the HRB.
2. The M s t a nds for m a r t e n s i t e .
Carbon-flee alloys: a) 0. i, 0.51, 1.0~ 3.1 and 5.0%
Ni; b) 0.1,0.5, 0.96,3.0. 5.0and6.9%Cr. Steels:
a) 0 . 1 2 , 0 . 5 2 , 1 . 2 , 3 . 0 , 5 . 0 % N i ; b) 0 . 1 , 0 . 5 2 , 1 o l , 3.1 The cooling r e g i m e s employed a r e shown in Table 2.
and 7% Cr. As can be s e e n f r o m Ta bl e 2, slow cooling of a l l o y s con-
t a i n i n g 5 and 7% Cr and 5% Ni did not produce No. 5 g r a i n s
(they w e r e s l i g h t l y finer); in a l l ot he r c a s e s the g r a i n s i z e
w a s the s a m e .
The e x p e r i m e n t s w e r e p e r f o r m e d by S. Tkachenko and
G. Surova under the d i r e c t i o n of the author. Selection of the heat t r e a t m e n t r e g i m e for the s t e e l
492

specimens c o n s i s t e d i n finding the quench h e a t i n g t e m p e r a - Heat-treated impact specimens made of carbon-free

ture which would p r o d u c e t h e s a m e a u s t e n i t e g r a i n s i z e alloys and steels (notch r ~ 1 mm was cut after the heat
( No. 7 ) and t e m p e r i n g t e m p e r a t u r e at w h i c h the s p e c i m e n s treatment) were put through impact bending tests at differ-
would h a v e the s a m e h a r d n e s s (HRC 30). the temperatures. The impact toughness as a function of
test temperatures is shown in Figs. 1 and 2.
TABLE2
In carbon-free alloys we observed a sharp transition
COOLING REGIMES FOR QUENCHING THE C A R B O N - F R E E from the ductile to the brittle state. The ductile specimen
ALLOYS was not totally fractured; hence the impact toughness was
somewhat conditional. At a certain temperature there is
O ~..w brtttle fracture and the ims toughness sharply declines
(to approximately 1 kgm/cm2). In the case of all the steels
~oe~ Cooling the transition from ductile to brittle fracture occurs within
~.,-w Q,
= ~ ~.~ the temperature range 80-- I00 ~ In the ductile specimens
the impact toughness of the steel containing 0.4% C and HRC
30 is 8--12 kgm/em 2, and in the brittle specimens it is
4--5 k g m / c m 2 .
In water 61 5
Alloys containing chromium It is curious that the impact toughness of nickel steels
in the ductile state is somewhat lower than that of chromium
0.5 With a fan 46 5--6 steels, although in the brittle state is considerably greater
1 In still air 44 5 than for carbon-free steels in the same state.
3 Atarateof50deg/hr.. 42 5
5 At a r a t e of 20 d e g / h r . . 42 6 It is difficult to determine the temperature at which
7 Atarateof20deg/hr.. 48 7 the steel changes to the brittle state from f.he impact tough-
Alloys containing nickel ness curve. It is easier to do it from the curves showing
the amount of ductile component as a function of the test
0.5 In s t i l l a i r 52 5 temperature (Fig. 3).
1 Atarateof50deg/hr.. 51 5
3 At a r a t e of 20 d e g / h r . . 65 5 The effect of chromium and nickel on the temperature
5 At a r a t e of 20 d e g / h r . . 74 6 of transition to the brittle state (according to Figs. 1 and 3)
is shown in Figs. 4 and 5.

T h e h e a t t r e a t m e n t r e g i m e s s e l e c t e d and t h e r e s u l t s In the case of carbon-free alloys the residual chromium

o b t a i n e d a r e shown i n T a b l e 3. (0.5-- i. 0%) reduces the transition temperature; this is

TABLE3

HEAT TREATMENT REGIMES FOR STEEL

9 ~oo ' ~ . ~ ' R ~.~I'~ I~.~ I

-- 850 ? 0.6 50 480 30.5 St~ls containing nickel I

Steels containing chromium 0 5 850 [ 7 2.3 53 480 [ 30

,3 900 4.7 5
7 950 7 8 4.8 50 600 29.0 5 750 I 8 6.1 5{5 550 31

~K
kgm/cm 2
~~ | ~-=~,~

i i o,5% 13%
9 I ~1% ;

16 1 ~'I " i '~ -

a
0
i'"' I
I

a)
s I
~-
:'
TJL!~
9
~

- O0-feO-160-140-f20-100 -30-GO -$0-20 0 20

L }
il

40-100-80-60-,~0 -20
b)
fill
',
0
-
20~

F i g . 1. E f f e c t of t e s t t e m p e r a t u r e on i m p a c t t o u g h n e s s of f e r r i t e :
a) a l l o y e d w i t h n i c k e l ; b) a l l o y e d w i t h c h r o m i u m
 493

ae
CONCLUSIONS
kgm/cm2

1. A study was made of the effect of chromium and

nickel on the ductile properties and t e m p e r a t u r e of t e m -
p e r a t u r e of transition to the brittle state for carbon-free
iron alloys with 0.03% C and improved steel with 0.4% C.
-tO0 - ~ -GO -~0 -2G 0 20 ~-~0-60-~0-~0 0 20 #0 60 80 ~
(a) (b)
2. The transition of the carbon-free alloys to the
Fig. 2. Effect of test t e m p e r a t u r e on impact toughness of brittle state is sudden, and occurs at one particular t e m p e r a -
steel: a) alloyed with nickel; b) alloyed with chromium. t u r e , while in the case of steels it occurs in the range 80-100".

/:/, I
40 9 ~.

'~ 30
20 / Ij /,/ I <!
. , 'I/.u
-120-Y00-80-GO-~O-ZO 0
i i
20-f00-~0-GO-40-~
l
0 20 40 $0 dO ~
al bl

Fig. 3. Amountof ductile componentin steel fracture as

function of test temperature: a) alloyed with nickel;
b) alloyed with chromium.

-80 ] i I

-120~ 1
o l 2 3 ~ 5 6 %
Cr o~tti l z 3 ~ 5 G %
Cr o r Ni

Fig. 4. Effect of chromium and Fig. 5. Effect of chromium and nickel

nickel on brittle transition t e m - on the brittle transition t e m p e r a t u r e of
p e r a t u r e of the f e r r i t e . F e r r i t e steel. Steel containing 0.4% C; quench-
grain 5-6 points. ing and tempering.

probably due to the softening effect of the initial chromium 3. In carbon-free alloys and steels2 chromium r a i s e s
addition (see Table 2). When the chromium content is in- the brittle transition t e m p e r a t u r e , while nickel reduces
c r e a s e d f r o m 1 to 7%, the h a r d n e s s is almost at the same it.
level, but the brittle transition t e m p e r a t u r e i n c r e a s e s f r o m
-70 to -40 ~ . This suggests that chromium r a i s e s the brittle
transition t e m p e r a t u r e of f e r r i t e .

Nickel greatly reduces the t e m p e r a t u r e of transition to REFERENCES

the brittle state, although the h a r d n e s s of f e r r i t e i n c r e a s e s
with the amount of nickel.

In steel containing 0.4% C, chromium r a i s e s the t r a n s i - 1. Ao P. Gulyayev, MiTOM, 1961, No. 5.

tion t e m p e r a t u r e monotonically and to a considerable extent,
while nickel reduces it. 2. M . M . Sheynberg, Stal v, 1949, No. 8.