Construction Materials

Topic 5

Durability of Steels
(Corrosion & Fire Protection)
Corrosion on Steels
Corrosion on Steels
Corrosion on Steels
Corrosion on Steels
Corrosion Mechanism
Corrosion Mechanism
Corrosion Mechanism
Forms of Corrosion on Steels

1) Pitting Corrosion
• Occur in structures exposed in coastal areas.

2) Stress Corrosion
• Occur in prestressing tendons in concrete.

3) Galvanic Corrosion
• Occur in contact with other materials (i.e.,
Copper).
Forms of Corrosion on Steels

4) Crevice Corrosion
• Occur at the tip of the welding area.

5) Bacterial Corrosion
• Occur on steel in soils and water, such as
pipeines, driven steel piles.
• Such activity is started in the presence of
sulfate-reducing bacteria.
• It is characterized by black corrosion products
having ‘rotton-egg’ smell of sulfides.
Corrosion Protection
Corrosion Protection
Corrosion Protection
Corrosion Protection
Corrosion Protection
Corrosion Protection
Avoid or Reduce Corrosion on Steels
Avoid or Reduce Corrosion on Steels
Fire Performance
of Steel Structures
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Temperature Development during Fire
Fire Precaution Measures
Strength of Steel at Elevated Temperatures
Strength of Steel at Elevated Temperatures
Strength of Steel at Elevated Temperatures
Performance of Steel Columns
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Fire Resistance Enhancement Methods
Construction Materials

Topic 6

Testing on Steels
Standard & Specification for Use of Steel

• CEDD, Construction Standard CS2:2012 Steel Reinforcing Bars for

the Reinforcement of Concrete. The Government of HKSAR, 2004.
• The Government of the HKSAR, General Specification for Civil
Engineering Works. Vol. 2. The Government of HKSAR, 2006.
General Specification for Use of Steel
General Specification for Use of Steel
General Specification for Use of Steel
General Specification for Use of Steel
General Specification for Use of Steel
General Specification for Use of Steel
Standard for Testing of Steel
Standard for Testing of Steel
Standard for Testing of Steel
Tension test

• Many of the parameters measured depend not only upon

material properties, but also upon the type of test and
properties of the testing machine.

A.R.Santhakumar
Stress-Strain Diagram (in Tension)

• When the initial area is used in the stress calculation, it

is called nominal stress.
• When actual area of bar is used, it is the true stress.

True stress

Normal stress

Not to scale
Gere
Difference between the behavior of hot-rolled steels
Tension test Results
Features of Stress-Strain Curve of Steel
Features of Stress-Strain Curve of Steel
Features of Stress-Strain Curve of Steel
Features of Stress-Strain Curve of Steel
Features of Stress-Strain Curve of Steel
Features of Stress-Strain Curve of Steel

Necking of Steel at Failure If stress maintained specimen will break

Fracture
Stress,  Strength

“Necking”
Tensile strength =
max. stress
(~ 100 - 1000 MPa)

Strain, 
Types of Deformation in Tension Test
Ductility and Brittleness

Ductile failure of Aluminum Brittle failure of Mild steel

Bend Test - Specimen considered to pass the test, if
there is no crack or rupture
Mandrel Diameter for Re-bend test
Re-Bend test

• The test piece bent to an inclined angle

of 135
• Mandrel diameter as given in the Table
(Different from bend test) previous slide
• The bent piece should be aged for 30
min in boiling water
• Piece should be bent back to 157.5 
• The purpose of re-bend test is to
measure the effect of strain ageing on
steel.
• Strain ageing has embrittlement effect
which takes place after cold deformation
by diffusion of nitrogen in steel
Re-Bend test

• Two further samples in respect of each failure

• If both additional test pass- the test is deemed to have
passed
• Even if one out of two additional test fail, the test is
considered to be a falure
Fire Performance
of Steel Structures

FATIGUE OF STEELS
Introduction

• A component or structure which survives a single

application of load may fracture if the application is repeated
a large number of times in short interval. This is called the
fatigue failure.
• Fatigue failure is widely studies because it accounts for 90%
of all service failure due to mechanical processes.
• The failure stress on fatigue is much lower than its tensile
strength, and the fatigue failure occur without any plastic
deformation (no warning).
• Fatigue surface appears as a smooth region, showing
beach mark or origin of fatigue crack.
Introduction
Factors causing Fatigue Failure

Basic Factors
1)A maximum tensile stress of sufficiently high value;
2)A large amount of variation or fluctuation in the applied
stress; and
3)A sufficiently large number of cycles of the applied stress.

Additional Factors
•Stress concentration,
•Corrosion,
•Temperature,
•Overload,
•Residual stress, and
•Combined stress.
Fatigue Loadings
Nature of Fatigue Failure

There are two basic stages involved in a fatigue failure:

1.Crack initiation
Generally, fatigue cracks initiate on a free surface at a point of
high stress concentration in the material. This may often be
pre-existing inside the material, or a human-made discontinuity,
such as the point at which there is sharp change in size or
shape of the material.

Fatigue cracks are due to the slippage of molecules of the

material. Under cyclic loads, reversed slip on adjacent slip
planes may lead to the formations of intrusions and extrusions
at the surface. This forms a fatigue crack which will begin to
grow in a plane perpendicular to the principal tensile stress.
Nature of Fatigue Failure

Stage 1
Nature of Fatigue Failure

2. Crack propagation
Fatigue crack will propagate under shear or tensile loading but
not under compressive loading, since compression will
close cracks rather than to open them.

On each tensile loading, very high stresses occur at crack tip

(due to the stress-concentration effect of a sharp crack),
causing the crack to propagate into the still undamaged
material ahead of it.

This process is repeated until the crack reaches some critical

length, at which time a sudden failure occurs, in either a
brittle or a ductile manner, depending on the characteristics
of the particular material.
Nature of Fatigue Failure

Stage 2
Assessment of Fatigue Life of a Material

In the analysis of a structure for fatigue, there are three main areas
of difficulty in prediction:

a)The operational environment of a structure and the relationship

between the environment and the actual forces acting on it.
b)The internal stresses at a critical point in the structure induced by
external forces acting on the structure.
c)The time till failure due to the accumulated stress history at the
critical point.

There are two basic approaches for the assessment of fatigue life of
structural components:
1.S-N approach
2.Fracture mechanics approach
Assessment of Fatigue Life of a Material

1) S-N Approach

Plotting of S-N Curve

Logarithmic scale is used on both axis to plot the S-N
curve, which is a mean curve among the data points.

To carry out fatigue life predictions, a linear fatigue

damage model is used in conjunction with the relevant S-
N curve. In essence, the model assumes that irreversible
damage accumulates linearly to a fixed level, at which
failure occurs.
 Infinite life

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

Fatigue S-N curve
Su
Stress amplitude, Sa (ksi)

S103

Sy

Se

Number of cycles, N

Fully reversed axial S-N curve for AISI 4130 steel. Note the break at the LCF/HCF transition and
the endurance limit
Characteristic parameters of the S - N curve are:
Se - fatigue limit corresponding to N = 1 or 2106 cycles for

S  C  N  10  N m
steels and N = 108 cycles for aluminum alloys, m A
S10 - fully reversed stress amplitude corresponding to N = 10
3 3
a
cycles
m - slope of the high cycle regime curve (Part 2) 76
 Approximate endurance limit for various materials:
Magnesium alloys (at 108 cycles) Se = 0.35Su
Copper alloys (at 108 cycles) 0.25Su< Se <0.50Su
Nickel alloys (at 108 cycles) 0.35Su <Se < 0.50Su
Titanium alloys (at 107 cycles) 0.45Su <Se< 0.65Su
Al alloys (at 5x108 cycles) Se = 0.45Su (if Su ≤ 48 ksi) or Se = 19 ksi (if Su> 48 ksi)
Steels (at 106 cycles) Se = 0.5Su (if Su ≤ 200 ksi) or Se = 100 ksi (if Su>200 ksi)
Irons (at 106 cycles) Se = 0.4Su (if Su ≤ 60 ksi) or Se = 24 ksi (if Su> 60 ksi)

S – N curve
1 1 A 1
 
S a  C  N m  10 A  N m or N  C m
 Sa  m C m
 Sa  m

 S
  
2
1  S   103 
m   log  103
 and A  log 
3  Se  Se 
 
Assessment of Fatigue Life of a Material

2) Fracture Mechanics Approach

This method considers the growth rate of an existing

defect at each stage in its propagation. Thus, if a material
contains a crack, fracture mechanics equations can be
used to predict its fatigue strength, assuming that the
fatigue life consists of crack growth from a pre-exiting
crack and the initial crack size is known.

This method is not very practical and mostly used to

make fatigue life models.