Iron and Steel Materials in

Engineering Applications

Asst. Prof. Dr. C. Fahir Arısoy

1
 Metallurgical and Materials Engineering
• Iron and Steel Materials in Engineering Applications
COURSE SYLLABUS

• Week 1
Introduction. Steel production flow charts and definitions. Steel
industry in Turkey and the World. Raw materials, metallurgical coke,
iron ore, Sintering and pelletizing of iron ore concentrates and
agglomeration products. Blast Furnace crude iron production,
principles and technology.

• Week 2
Basic Oxygen Furnace. Electric arc furnace, primary and / or
secondary sources and developments in steel production. De-
oxidation and alloying technology and general Principles. Refining,
deoxidizing, and alloying operations -Ladle Metallurgy.

2
• Week 3
Steel Grades. Influence of alloying elements on properties of iron
and steel materials. Principles of alloying practice of iron and steel
materials.
• Week 4
The classification of iron and steel materials. Iron and steel
materials norms at the national and international quality standards.
• Week 5
Iron and steel materials norms at the national and international
quality standards. Steel grades and metallurgical factors.
• Week 6
Structural Steels; Steels for reinforcing concrete (Reinforcing Steel),
Heat Treated Reinforcing Steel, Steel Strands, Wire and Ropes.

• Week 7
Midterm Exam I 13th April 2021
3
• Week 8 April 20
Rail Steel, Free-Cutting Steels
• Week 9 April 27
Heat treatment general principals and practice. Heat treatable
steels. Heat-treatable and surface-hardening steels for vehicle and
machine construction,
• Week 10 May 04
Tool Steels, Spring steels.

• Mid-Semester Break 10th May -16th May 2020

• Week 11 May 18
Stainless steels and Heat resisting steels

• Week 12
Midterm Exam II 25th May 2021 4
• Week 13
Cast irons for engineering applications.

• Week 14
Selection criteria of iron and steel materials for engineering
applications. General considerations and discussion.

End of Spring Term 11th June, 2021

Final Exams for Spring Term 14th June – 27th June 2021

5
 Course Evaluation

• 2 midterm exam %30+30

• Final exam % 40

6
Iron and Steel Materials in
Engineering Applications

Introduction

7
 STEELS ARE?
Steel is a term given to alloys containing a high proportion of
iron with some carbon up to 2%. However, other alloying
elements and some impurity ellements may also be present in
varying proportions.
Steels can be divided into groups according to carbon amount.

• Plain Carbon Steels (non alloy steels)

(%0.6 C, %0.8 Mn, %0.3 Si, %0.012S, 0.023P)
• High Carbon-High Alloy Steel
(%1.2C, %4Cr, %18W, %1Mo, %15Co)
• Low Carbon Low Alloy Steel
(%0.05C, %0.20 Mn, %0.10Si, %0.10V)
• Low Carbon High Alloy Steel
(%0.01C, %27Cr, %31Ni, %4Mo, %0.2Ti) 8
What is Steel?
Steel is an iron alloy which has small
amount of carbon.
Steel is an alloy consisting mostly
of iron, in addition to small amounts
of carbon and other elements

9
 Carbon and Alloy Steels
• Steels can be also expressed in different
groups according to alloying elements
– Plain carbon steels (less than 1% carbon and
negligible amounts of other residual elements)
• Low Carbon (less than 0.3% carbon)
• Med Carbon (0.3% to 0.6%)
• High Carbon (0.6% to 0.95%)
– Low Alloy Steel
– High Alloy Steel
– Stainless Steels (Corrosion-Resistant Steels)
– generally contain at least 10.5% Chromium
10
(Equlibrium Phase Diagram of Fe-C or Fe-Fe3C )

11
Equlibrium Phase Diagram of Fe-C or Fe-Fe3C

12
 Ferrous Metal Alloys
Ferrous Metal Alloys

Steels
Steels Cast Irons
Cast Irons

<1.4 wt% C
<1.4wt%C 3-4.5 wt%C
3-4.5 wt% C
microstructure: ferrite,
graphite/cementite
T(ºC)
1600
d
1400 L

g +L
1200 g 1148ºC L+Fe3C
austenite Eutectic:
1000 4.30

g +Fe3C
a 800 727ºC Fe 3 C
ferrite Eutectoid: cementite
600 0.76 a +Fe3C

400
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 6.7
(Fe)
13
Co , wt% C
Fe-C equilibrium phase diagram and steels
1600 C

d
1400 C L

1200 C

g
1000 C
steels cast irons
800 C
a

600 C

400 C
Fe 1% C 2% C 3% C 4% C 5% C 6% C 6.70% C 14
 BCC
TEMPERATURE °C
Temperature °C

FCC

BCC

Time
TIME

Allotropic behavior of pure iron

15
 Interstitial
substitutional

substitutional
interstitial C

Carbon in Ferrite and Austenite: Interstitial places of carbon and substitutional 16

places of alloying elements in iron lattice
 Unit Cells of Fe with C

The unit cell for (a) austentite, (b) ferrite, and (c) martensite. The effect of the
percentage of carbon (by weight) on the lattice dimensions for martensite is
shown in (d). Note the interstitial position of the carbon atoms and the
increase in dimension c with increasing carbon content. Thus, the unit cell of
martensite is in the shape of a rectangular prism (Body Centered
Tetragonal).
18
Iron and Steel Extractive
Metallurgy
Introduction

19
 Processes
Today, steel is produced per year up to 1.6 Billion
tonnes through the two main processes:
1. Integrated production
Blast Furnace + Basic Oxygen Furnace (BF + BOF)

2. Secondary Production (recycling of steel,

not “secondary metallurgy” !!)
Electric Arc Furnace (EAF)
and also, steel can be produced by different
production processes which are named as "alternative
processes".

20
 Integrated steel producers:
The integrated steel producers produce steel by
converting iron ore to metallic iron and converting
metallic iron to steel

Secondary steel producers:

The Secondary producers produce steel through
the process of melting steel scrap. These are
mainly small steel plants and produce steel in
electric furnaces, using scrap and sponge iron.
They produce both mild steel and alloy steel in
certain specifications. 21
 PROCESSES
Traditional Technology
Iron Production Steel Production Final Product

Sinter
coke Lump ore
pellets

Blast Furnace BOF

Secondary metallurgy
Casting

Steel refining
EAF and Alternative Technologies

(varialbe
methods)
Smelting
Reduction
EAF
Direct

Rolling
Reduction

Scrap
22
 Steel Production Processes
Steel Scrap
Crude Iron
Secondary Metallurgy

Iron Ore
Coke
Fluxes

BOF

Blast Furnace

Steel Scrap
Fluxes
Electricity

EAF Continuous Casting

Integrated Steel production has two integrated stages:

The first stage is crude iron (pig iron) production

The second stage is steel production from crude iron

In today's technology, continuous mass production techniques are

used for iron production.

The widespread iron production technology is the Blast Furnace iron-

production technology. The blast furnace made it possible to produce
large amount of iron with carbon content up to 4-5 percent .

The iron product of Blast furnace is named liquid crude iron or pig iron.

Todays the largest blast furnaces have a volume around 6000 m3 and
can produce around 4 million tons of iron per year.

24
The final product of blast furnace iron production is Crude
Iron. It is a semi product and it is suitable to improve its
properties by further operations.

Pig iron has 2–4% dissolved Carbon

with small amounts of other impurities like
Silicon, Sulphur, Magnesium, Phosphorus and Manganese.

Pig iron is also used for produce some machine parts and
construction parts.
High level of carbon makes the iron brittle and hard.

Because of high level of carbon, silicon, manganese and

small amounts of sulfur and phosphorus; pig iron cannot be
forged, but can be cast. Some machine part can be made
from cast iron by casting.
25
 Steel products
Semi-finished products(continuous cast steel)

Flat product long product

Finished products (rolled steel)

26
Charge Materials of B.F.
•Ferrous raw materials and coke fed in to
the blast furnace must have sufficient
specifications
•Charge materials charged into the blast
furnace are;
‾ ferrous raw materials (primary sources)
‾ lump ore
‾ sinter
‾ pellet
‾ coke
‾ flux 27
 Iron Oxides

- Raw Ores Hematite Fe2O3

Magnetite Fe3O4

- Iron content ranges 50% to 70%

28
 Iron Oxides
Iron ores are crashed and ground into a powder and
gangue materials are removed by ore preperation (ore
dressing) techniques. Concentrated ore fines
agglomerated into large porous forms.

- Lump Ores have proper

specification to directly fed into
the furnace without any
preperations
- Pellets

- Sinter

Aglomerated iron oxides contain 60% to 65% iron

29
30
Coke
the coke is a reducing material that
charged into the furnace together with
iron oxide charge materials.

31
Coke
Coke heats up and reachs the tuyere (combustion) zone and
coke burned with hot air blown in front of the Tuyere. The
reductive CO gas formation occurs as a result of burning
reactions of coke.

C(s)+ O2(g) = CO2(g)

C(s)+ CO2 (g)=2CO(g) (BOUDOUARD reaction) 32
• During the hot reductive gas mixture of CO
and N2 ascends to the top of the furnace, CO
reduces iron oxides and transforms into CO2.
Hematite (Fe2O3) is reduced to metallic Fe
passing through the magnetite (Fe2O4) and
wüstitte (FeO) states.
• FexOy + yCO = xFe + yCO2
• CO2 is unstable in the presence of carbon at
the temperatures over 1000 °C. The carbon is
always presence in the blast furnace as coke.
CO2 is re-converted into CO according to
Boudouard reaction
• (CO2 + C = 2CO) 33
At the lower part of the oven, hot air and hot
gas formed by the combustion-burning- of
coke.
The flame temperature as high as 1800-2000
°C at the tuyere section. The charging
material heats up to 1400-1500 °C during
flowing down the body of the furnace.
Cohesive zone is softening and melting of
charging zone. Direct reduction and melting
of the slag occure in this zone.
Tuyere gas ascends through the spaces
between softening coke pieces in the
furnace 34
 • Coke and Coke Production
Coke is the major carbon source of the iron
production. Coke is produced from coal
by “coking” process.

35
 • Coke and Coke Production

Coke is charged into the blast furnace both as fuel

(heat source) and as reducing agent.

Blast furnace coke is produced from a coal charge

by removing the volatile matter in an airless oven at
high temperatures up to 1100°C.

This volatile matter forms a flammable gas: so-called

coke oven gas.
36
• Coke and Coke Production

Carbonization is a decomposition of coal

occured during baking in an oven without
oxygen by the effect of temperature. and the
process is called carbonization.

The complex coal molecules breaks down

with high temperature and the volatile
(gaseous) substances are removed from the
main structure of the coal.
37
After the carbonization
• porous,
• hard,
• high strength,
and according to the composition of coal
as the main charge, remains relatively
more carbon including products.
This product is called as "coke" or "semi
coke".

38
• The coking process takes place over long
periods of time between 10-20 hours in the
coke ovens.
• After coking period the hot cokes are
pushed out of the oven slots then
quenched with either water or air to cool
before storage.

39
Metallurgical coke is a very important
raw material in pyrometallurgical
furnaces like Blast furnaces.

Coke functions are very important in

the blast furnace.

40
Coke provides in the Blast furnace:

•1-Chemically-
a) Coke provides the heat required for reducing
iron oxide and melting slag and iron
b) and provides the CO that required to reduce iron
oxide.

41
Coke provides in the Blast furnace:

•2-Physically –
a) Provides desired permeability within the
burden (charge) so that a counter current
movement of hot reducing gases and molten
slag and iron is maintained.
b) Coke provides mechanical support to
furnace.

42
Coking process is performed by indirect heating
of rectangler shape coke ovens, in sizes in
meters (0.4 to 0.6) x (4-5) x (14-15).

43
• Coke ovens (slots) are silica brick-walled cabins rooms. 40 ovens,
which creates a battery chamber in between the combustion
chambers.

• The coking heat is generate by the burning of coke gas, blast

furnace gas, or mixtures in combustion chambers.
44
Incandescent coke in
the oven waiting to
be "pushed".

45
46
 Primary Iron Sources

Iron Ores and Preparations

47
 IRON ORES

Iron Ores are natural mineral that contain a

certain amount of at least one of ferrous
minerals.
Preferred iron ores are:
hematite and magnetite ores.
Goethite and limonite ores are iron
containing minerals can be used after
proper pre-processing methods
48
 IRON ORES
• The iron itself is usually found in the form of
magnetite (Fe3O4),
• hematite (Fe2O3),

• goethite (FeO(OH)),
• limonite (FeO(OH).n(H2O)) or
• siderite (FeCO3).

49
 Major iron compounds

Name Formula %Fe

Hematite Fe2O3 69.9

Magnetite Fe3O4 74.2
Goethite/Limonite HFeO2 ~ 63

Siderite FeCO3 48.2

Pyrite FeS 46.6

Ilmenite FeTiO3 36.81

50
 Iron Oxides
Iron ores are used as lump ore sinter and pellets

Lump Ores have proper specification to directly fed into

the furnace without any preparations
Other Iron ores are crashed and ground into a powder and gangue
materials are removed by ore preperation (ore dressing)
techniques. Concentrated ore fines agglomerated into large porous
forms.

- Pellets
- Sinter

Aglomerated iron oxides contain 60% to 65% iron 51

Agglomeration of iron ores

Agglomeration is the process of

converting fine powder particles into
larger particles.
In iron production, the process of pelleting
and sintering
Agglomeration is made to prepare iron
consantrates for further processing stages.

52
PELLETIZING OF IRON ORES
Through the agglomeration, It is possible to use
very fine iron ore powder in the blast furnace.

Pellets are preferred due to their good features as

iron ore agglomerates.

53
• Pelletizing disc
54
 drying Pre-firing
Green
pellets
Burner

Cooler

Pellets

• Commonly used pellet firing unit

55
56
IRON ORE
SINTERING

57
Sintering is an agglommeration proces that
relatively fine iron particles are formed into large,
hard, porous components at a high temperature.
The formation of agglomerates occurs by two
important mechanism:
(a) melting and bonding starts at contact
surfaces of ore particles,
(b) diffusion bonds occur as a result of
re-crystallization and crystal growth without
melting of hematite and magnetite particles

58
Sintering reactions are obtained by combustion of
very well mixtured coke powders with moistened
mineral powders.
High sintering temperatures are obtained at the range
of 1300-1400 °C by the entirely combustion of carbon
in coke.
Sintering blends typically consist of
• Sintering concentrate or ore
• Returning undersize sinter
• coke powder
• Flux
• Ferrous waste such as flue dust, and mill scales
• Water
59
60
BLAST FURNACE
and
IRON PRODUCTION

61
Traditional Iron –Steel Production
The traditional way of iron and steel production
is:

raw iron containing materials are reduced and

melted to liquid crude iron in Blast Furnace
(BF)
liquid crude iron is converted to steel in Basic
Oxygen Furnaces (Converters-BOF)

The most important process, in the steel

production from the primery iron sources is:
BLAST FURNACE 62
63
• Blast Furnace (Blast Furnace) and liquid
crude iron (LCI) Production;
Blast Furnaces are large-scale vertical
metallurgical furnaces and equipped with:
• Charging systems
• Flue gas cleaning systems,
• Air heating stoves
• Air blowing system
• Metal and slag tapping (draining) systems
facilities
64
65
blast furnace 2 in Duisburg-Schwelgern. Here: inside the blast furnace.

66
67
Bustle pipe and tuyeres 68
The carbon in coke provides the necessary heat
and reduction gas in the B.F.
The charge heats up and reachs the tuyere zone
and burned with hot air blown in front of the
Tuyere. The reductive CO gas formation occurs
as a result of burning reactions.
C+ O2 = CO2
C+ CO2 =2CO (BOUDOUARD reactions)
Rising hot gas consisting of a mixture of CO and
N2 from the air gives heat to descending charge
and rises the temperature of the charging
material.. 69
70
71
 C+O2 = CO2
CO2 +C = 2CO

• Change in the composition of the gas in front of

the tuyeres
72
Air blast and coke:
2 C + O2 → 2 CO.
Carbon monoxide (CO) is the principal reduction
agent.

Ironoxides reductions:

Stage One: 3 Fe2O3 + CO → 2 Fe3O4 + CO2

Stage Two: Fe3O4 + CO → 3 FeO + CO2
Stage Three: FeO + CO → Fe + CO2

Limestone calcining: CaCO3 → CaO + CO2

Lime acting as flux: CaO + SiO2 → CaSiO3
73
Composition of produced liquid crude Iron
•3-4% C
•1% max Si
•1-2.5% Mn
•0.1-1.2% P
•0.07% max S
and includes some other metals in inclusion level.

74
• In practice, passing rates of the elements
in liquid crude iron from raw materials can
be ordered as follows according to the
conditions

75
• Rates of passing into liquid crude iron of some
elements
• Iron 95-100 %
• Manganese 60-70 %
• Manganese 80-90 % High Temperetures
• Silicon 2-3 % Basic slags
• Silicon 10-15 % Acidic slags – High Temp.
• Phosphorus 100 %
• Nickel 100 %
• Copper 100 %
• Tin 100 %
• Cobalt 100 %
• Chrome 100 %

76
Basic Oxygen Steelmaking

Asst. Prof. Dr. C. Fahir Arısoy

77
Liquid pig iron produced in the blast furnace, has
the following composition, depending on the
used raw material and the furnace operating
conditions

• 3.5 - 4.5 % C,
• 0.3 - 1.5 %Si,
• 0.25 - 2.2 % Mn,
• 0.05 - 0.20 % P,
• 0.03 - 0.05 % S
and includes some other elements in inclusion
levels
78
Typical steel compositions
• Plain Carbon Steels (non alloy steels)
(%0.6 C, %0.8 Mn, %0.3 Si, %0.012S,
0.023P)
• High Carbon-High Alloy Steel
(%1.2C, %4Cr, %18W, %1Mo, %15Co)
• Low Carbon Low Alloy Steel
(%0.05C, %0.20 Mn, %0.10Si, %0.10V)
• Low Carbon High Alloy Steel
(%0.01C, %27Cr, %31Ni, %4Mo, %0.2Ti)

79
• Steel production in Oxygen Converters

• In this second phase of the production of steel

include the oxidizing stages of high amount of
C, Si, Mn and other empurities to adjust the
desired composition range for specified steel.

• The production of steel in integrated plants, is

carried out by surface blowing of high-purity
oxygen at a high pressure into the liquid crude
iron, steel scrap and fluxes in basic oxygen
converter. 80
• According to Ellingham (G - T) diagram, it can be
expected the oxidations of C, Si, Mn, P occurs, before
the oxidation of iron at the production temperature
around 1600 ° C.

• Impurities are oxidized according to exothermic

reactions during steel production.
• 2[P] + 5[O] = (P2O5)
• [Si] + 2[O] = (SiO2)
• [Mn] + [O] = (MnO)
• [C] + [O] = CO (g)

81
The heat of reaction (H), or enthalpy, determines the energy cost of the process. If the
reaction is exothermic (H is negative), then heat is given off by the reaction, and the
process will be partially self-heating. If the reaction is endothermic (H is positive), then
the reaction absorbs heat, which will have to be supplied to the process.

IRON MAKING AND STEELMAKING: THEORY AND PRACTICE

AHINDRA GHOSH,AMIT CHATTERJEE

82
% 25 - 35 percent iron and steel scrap (or sponge
iron-HBI) are used in Oxygen furnaces. Initially the
scrap is charged into converter. After that liquid iron is
charged into furnace then the oxygen blowing is
started.

The high liquid metal temperature allows the use of

more metal scrap for the per unit hot metal.
This is an advantage in the case that the scrap is
inexpensive.

The temperatures of liquid crude iron from the blast

furnaces is normally 1480 - 1510 ° C.
83
84
85
86
Steps involved in LD process:

1. Charging
2. Blowing
3. Sampling
4. Tapping
5. Slag off

87
http://www.steelconstruction.info/Steel_manufacture
88
1. Charging:

i) Scrap (~25%):
 Home scrap generated in the plant is charged.
 It acts as a coolant & utilizes the excess heat energy generated during
refining.
 LD process can take upto 25% of the metal charge as scrap.

89
ii) Hot Metal (75-90%):
The analysis of iron required to use in LD process as
follows:

C 4.10 - 4.30%

Si 0.50 – 0.85%

Mn 0.50 – 0.80%

S 0.02 – 0.03%

P 0.10 – 0.25%

90
iii) Fluxes:
 Lime (%CaO) and dolomite (58%CaO, 39%MgO) are the
two primary fluxes.

iv) Coolants:
 Limestone, scrap, iron ore, and sponge iron are all
potential coolants that can be added to a heat that has
been overblown and is excessively hot.

v) Oxygen:
 99.5% of pure oxygen is used as refining agent.

91
2.Blowing:

After charging, the vessel is
rotated to vertical position, lance
is lowered to blowing position and
O2 is turned on.

Oxygen blows at a pressure of 9-
11 atmosphere. which increases
temperature (16000C) and burns
off impurities.

The blow continues for nearly 15-
25 minutes.

Oxygen consumption: 50-60 m3/t
of steel.
92
Sequence of elimination of impurities
93
• As shown in Figure during 20 minutes of oxygen
blowing the refining process is completed.

• the composition of the slag changes and bath

temperature increases during oxygen blowing.

94
Chemical Reactions:

1. [Fe] + [O] = (FeO)

2. [C] + [O] = {CO}

3. [Si] + 2 [O] = (SiO2)

4. [Mn] + [O] = (MnO)

5. 2[P] + 5[O] = (P2O5)

6. [FeS/MnS] + (CaO) = (CaS) + (FeO/MnO)

95
3.Sampling:
• Slag and metal samples are taken out for analysis.
• Temperature of the bath is measured by immersion of
thermocouple.

96
4.Tapping:
• If the analysis & tapping temperature are in the required
range, then the molten steel is tapped in the laddle.
• Deoxidizers and alloying additions are made in the
laddle.
• Tap-to-tap time is 40 – 50 min.

97
De-oxidation of Converter Steel
• De-oxidation is the final process in which dissolved
oxygen in the steel is removed.
• The de-oxidizers i.e. Al, Fe-Si and Fe-Mn are added to the
steel, which combines with dissolved oxygen and forms
their oxides.

FeO + Al Fe + Al2O3
FeO + Fe-Si Fe + SiO2
FeO + Fe-Mn Fe + MnO

98
5.Slag off:
• After tapping steel into the ladle, and turning the vessel
upside down and tapping the remaining slag into the
"slag pot“.

99