Making of Modern Steel – Sustainable

Steel Manufacturing (The Mini Mill)

• The mini-mill method relies on scrap recycling.
• A large scrap storage yard and a shredder are the two most important parts of a
recycling plant.
• After shredding, the scrap is separated into ferrous and nonferrous scrap using
magnetic separation.
• Nonferrous scrap is further separated into metals (copper, aluminum, etc.) and
nonmetals (plastics, rubber, fabric, etc.).
• After the scrap goes through shredding and separation, it is stored in the yard as feed
for the EAF.
• Most mini mills have a large scrap recycling facility within or close to the mill.
 Making of Modern Steel – Sustainable
Steel Manufacturing (The Mini Mill)

Crushed cars in the scrap yard. A scrap shredder. After the scrap is shredded, it is separated into ferrous
and non-ferrous parts through magnetic separation. The ferrous scrap is
then sent by rail carts to storage, ready for feed into the electric arc
furnace.
 Making of Modern Steel – Sustainable Steel
Manufacturing (The Mini Mill)

A view of the yard, showing the shredded ferrous scrap in the background and
finished steel sections in the foreground.
Important mechanical properties of metals
Hardness
• The ability to resist localized plastic deformation (a small dent or scratch).
Brittleness
• A property of a metal which permits no permanent deformation before breaking. Brittle materials break
instantly (cast iron).
Ductility
• Ability to deform under tensile stress  allows material to be stretched.
Malleability
• Material property to deform under compressive stress; allows hammering or rolling into other sizes and shapes
(thin sheets) . Copper is very malleable. Malleability of most materials will increase significantly when the
material is heated such as iron or steel before forging.
Elasticity
• Ability of the material to return to its original shape after any force acting on it has been removed. Materials
which are tough and ductile, such as wrought iron, have high elasticity. Cast iron has very little elasticity.
Toughness
• Property that determines whether or not a material will break under sudden impact impact strength.
• The area under the stress–strain curve up to fracture is a measure of the energy absorbed per unit volume of
material, and is termed the toughness of the material.
•  Charpy Impact Test.
Stress-Strain Curve

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Classification of steel (depending on carbon content)
Steel

Plain Carbon Steels Alloy Steels

Low Carbon steel Stainless Steel

Mild Steel Nickel Steel

Medium Carbon Steel Vanadium Steel

High Carbon Steel Tungsten Steel

Manganese Steel
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Steel
An alloy of iron (Fe) and carbon (C). It consists of up to 1.5 per cent carbon in iron.

• Plain Carbon Steels can be subcategorized into low-, medium- and high-carbon steels
• Low carbon steel
• Produced in the highest quantity
• Typically, contain up to 0.25 wt.% Carbon.
• Soft, weak but having excellent ductile.
• Machinable, weldable, not expensive.
• In construction they are used as structural I-beams, as sheet-form in buildings, bridges and pipelines.
• They have a yield strength of about 280 MPa, tensile strengths of around 400–550 MPa and a ductility of 25
percent elongation (at failure they stretch up to a quarter of their original length, i.e. a 100 mm sample will
stretch to 125 mm at failure)

Another group of low-carbon steels are the high-strength low-alloy steels (HSLAs);
• In addition to carbon, other alloying elements include vanadium, nickel, copper and molybdenum – the
combined alloyed content is up to 10 wt%.
• As a result HSLAs have higher strengths than plain low-carbon steels (of around 500 MPa) without com-
promising on ductility and machinability. These steels have applications in construction/civil engineering
where structural strength is of great importance in bridges, support columns in multi-storey buildings and
Towers.
 Mild steel
• Steel with carbon content 0.15 to 0.25%
• Called mild steel, low carbon steel or soft steel
• Uses
• Used in construction work as rolled sections, I-sec, T-sec, channels, angle irons, etc
• MS round bars used in RCC as reinforcement.
• Plain and corrugated sheets as roofing.
• Used in manufacture of various tools, equipment, machine parts.
• Rail tracks, towers and industrial buildings.

Constructional steels contain between 0.15 and 0.4 wt% of carbon depending on application and
strength requirements. Mainly medium- or low-carbon steels are used in construction (structural
steel).
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Medium-carbon steels
• Contain 0.25-0.50 wt.% carbon
• These alloys have higher strength than low-carbon steels but lower
ductility and toughness.
• Good wear resistance Extensively used in the railway industry (railway
wheels & tracks, gears)
• They have a yield strength of about 450 MPa, tensile strengths of around
600–800 MPa and a ductility of about 15–20 per cent elongation.
High carbon steels
• 0.5 -1.5 wt.% C  higher carbon content renders it tougher and harder.
• Hardest, strongest, least ductile of all steels  Limited application or
usage in construction
• Especially wear resistant.
• High-carbon steels can have yield strengths of up to 1,700 MPa, tensile
strengths of up to 1,800 MPa and ductilities as low as 5 percent.
• Form hard and wear resistant carbides with alloying elements
• Uses
• Manufacture of cutting tools like drills, files, chisels
• Fine quality of cutlery
• Parts of machines requiring to withstand shocks and vibrations
• High-strength wire
Grain sizes and heat treatments
 Heat Treatment
Annealing
Heating slowly to 800-1000°C, maintaining it and then cooling Normalizing
very slowly to room temperature. • Similar to annealing but hotter & air cooled
Steel is annealed to relieve internal stresses due to • Gives uniform, fine grained structure and remove cold
• Working of metal working strain.
• unequal contraction in casting
Steel gets softer & more ductile, increasing toughness

Hardening Tempering
• Higher heat followed by rapid • Reheating hardened steel to a lower temperature
cooling in oil, water or air. and quenching.
• Steel becomes harder and too brittle for Reduces steel’s hardness but making it tougher.
most practical uses. Relieves internal stresses and reduces brittleness.
• Severe internal stresses are set up during
the rapid cooling.
• Must be followed by tempering

Civil Engineering Materials 46

Properties of Steel
+ High stiffness (high Young’s modulus). This means that a steel structure placed under load will not distort or deflect elastically very much.
+ High strength (high tensile strength). This means that the steel will not break under high loads. Metals possess tensile strength, unlike stone,
concrete, brick, etc. A large suspension bridge such as the Humber Bridge, or a cable stay bridge like the Dartford Bridge over the Thames
would be impossible to build without steel.
+ Good ductility (capable of undergoing considerable plastic deformation before it breaks). Its ductility means that it is capable of being shaped
by rolling, forging, drawing, etc. into any desired shapes (angles, channels, I-beams, etc.). Steel also has quite a high fracture toughness.

Although, steels have in general highly desirable mechanical properties, they also have some properties that are not so good, including the
following.

 Corrosion : Steel is prone to wet corrosion. The reason is that it is a two-phase material, i.e. its microstructure consists of two phases –
ferrite (virtually pure iron) and pearlite (a mixture of pure iron and iron carbide). Wrought iron, being virtually pure iron, is single phase, and
so is much more corrosion resistant than steel.
 High density :Steel has quite a high density (7,800 kg m3), and so structures and components made from steel can be rather heavy.
This is not usually a problem with buildings, but occasionally weight is important, and this can rule out the use of steel.
 Poor Fire performance :As steel is so dense and is such a good conductor of heat, it does not perform well in fire unless it is
protected. Steel loses much of its strength if heated to 1,000°C. Most building fires do not reach temperatures higher than 700–800°C, but if
part of a steel structure is heated to this temperature the steel will buckle or collapse under the load it is carrying. Steel also expands when
heated, and expansion stresses are also responsible for some of the problems that occur with unprotected steelworking fires.
Effect of carbon on steel
• Increasing carbon content increases:
1. Tensile strength
2. Yield strength
• Decreases ductility
Steel as reinforcement in construction
• Deformed steel bars (rebars)
• Pre-stressing strands
Why Use Reinforcement in Concrete?