JEE125 Materials Technology Student ID……………………..

Tutorial 9 Surname……………………….
Name…………………………….
Heat Treatment 2
………………
Question 1: A coil of steel strip containing 0.5% carbon is reduced in thickness by 20% by cold
rolling. Subsequently its hardness increases to a point such that further cold reduction cannot be
carried out. The manager of this operation decides to heat treat the steel to soften it so that
further reduction in thickness can be accomplished.
a) Describe the changes to the steel’s structure during the cold working operation.
b) What heat treatment would be required to soften the steel, and what microstructural
changes would occur as a result of this heat treatment?
c) Discuss the nature of possible grain growth during the heat treatment. Is grain growth
desirable?
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer:
(a) Assuming that the steel was fully soft at the beginning of the cold rolling operation, the grain
structure would consist of equiaxed grains of ferrite and pearlite, since the the steel was hypoeutectoid.
Cold rolling the steel would cause an elongation of the grains, and consequently a hardening of the steel.
The grain structure is illustrated in Sections 6.2 of the lecture notes.

(b) To fully soften the material the steel would require annealing. This process involves heating the steel
to 500C above the A3 boundary to austenitize, and recrystallise the stressed and elongated grain
structure. The steel is then slow cooled in the furnace to fully soften. It is now ready to undergo further
plastic deformation and reduction in thickness by cold rolling.
See section 6.11 of the lecture notes.

(c) The process of plastic deformation proceeds by the mechanism of slip, the movement of dislocations
through the metal in the direction of the applied stress. When the worked metal is annealed, it
recrystallizes at a temperature which is dependent on the amount of deformation, greater amounts of
deformation resulting in lower recrystallization temperatures. At the start of heat treatment the process
of recovery begins, and after recrystallization, grain growth will occur if the heating cycle is too long. This
must be avoided since excessive grain growth weakens the steel. This problem is controlled by adjusting
the time the steel is held at the austenitization temperature. Further details are available on Sections 6.2
of the lecture notes.

Page 1 of 5
Question 2:
a) What is a TTT diagram, what are its uses, and how is such a diagram produced in practice?
b) Refer to Figure 1, the TTT diagram for a 1.13% plain carbon steel attached, and on this
diagram sketch and label time-temperature paths to produce the following
microstructures:
(I) 6.2% proeutectoid cementite and 93.8% coarse pearlite
(II) 50% bainite and 50% fine pearlite
(III) 100% martensite
(IV) 100% tempered martensite.
c) Refer to the lecture notes, and use the diagrams to determine the Brinell hardness and
tensile strength of each of the microstructures produced in part (b) above. Tabulate the
results.

Figure 1

Page 2 of 5
Answer:
(a) A TTT or time-temperature-transformation diagram is a “snap-shot” of a phase diagram for an alloy
of specific composition. It shows the phases present as a function of temperature and time, and provides
essential information to enable heat treatment processes to be carried out. This is important in order to
achieve a specific microstructure, and hence an alloy with specified mechanical properties. The heat
treatment involves cooling the metal at a pre-determined rate, and often requires a specified arrest
period.
TTT diagrams are constructed from the detailed compilation of the phase compositions for a specific
alloy at a specified range of temperatures. These test data are then combined into a full temperature-time
transformation diagram.

(b) Refer to figure 1 on which is marked the cooling curves required to produce the microstructures (i) to
(iv).
COMMENTS:
(i) This composition of microconstituents represents a 1.13% carbon steel, austenitized at 8000C, and
slowly cooled through the A + C region, thus retaining proeutectoid cementite and austenite. Upon
passing into the austenite to pearlite phase area, and holding, the retained austenite then transforms to
pearlite. The final composition is 6.2% proeutectoid cementite plus 93.8% coarse pearlite, the latter due
to slow cooling between 10 and 103 s.
To verify this combination of microconstituents carry out a carbon balance which should equal 1.13%
carbon.
% C = 6.2% Fe3C @ 6.7% C + 93.8% pearlite @ 0.76% C
= 0.415 + 0.713
= 1.128.
(ii) Here the steel is cooled to about 5500C, through the A + P region to the 50% line, where half the
original austenite transforms to fine pearlite. (Note the slower cooling required to produce coarse
pearlite in (i). The steel is held for about 10 s, during which time the remaining 50% austenite transforms
to bainite.
(iii) Very rapid cooling is required to produce martensite, in the order of 8000C/s.
(iv) Tempering the martensite requires reheating it to between 200 and 7000 C , holding for around 2
hours,(7200 s), and air cooling. For the purpose of this excercise one must assume a temperature, since
none was given. I have chosen 3000C for approximately 104 s to illustrate the process.

(c) The diagrams in Sections 12.9 and 12.10 only extend to 1.0% carbon, but these values can be used to
obtain a reasonable estimate of the mechanical properties, since all the curves tend to flatten in the
region of 1.0% carbon. Some data is available for bainite in the recommended text in chapter 9. Bainite

Page 3 of 5
may be regarded as an austenitic decomposition product, but is non-lamellar in morphology. It consists
of very fine rod – like particles of cementite in a matrix of ferrite, and has mechanical ptoperties between
fine pearlite and tempered martensite. The properties of the four products are recorded in the table
below.

MICROSTRUCTURE BRINELL HARDNESS TS (MPa)

Coarse Pearlite 201 725
Fine Pearlite 300 1035
Martensite 700 2415
Tempered Martensite 480 1656
Bainite 400 1380

Page 4 of 5
Question 3: When a 0.4 % plain carbon steel is rapidly quenched, the hard and brittle
microconstituent martensite is formed. In order to change this structure to one that is tougher
and more ductile, the heat treatment known as tempering is employed. The tempering
temperature will determine the final mechanical properties of the steel, assuming the treatment
has been carried out for the correct time. Answer the following questions:
a) Explain how tempering is carried out in practice.
b) For the 0.4 % carbon steel, describe briefly the microstructures that would result after
tempering treatments at 200 0C, 350 0C and 650 0C.
c) For the tempering treatments carried out in part (ii), tabulate the following mechanical
properties for each, namely yield point, tensile strength, percent elongation, and hardness.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Answer:
a) Tempering is a heat treating process whereby the martensitic structure which is hard and brittle is
toughened by reheating to a specified temperature below the eutectoid temperature, held for a
specified time, and then slowly cooled in air. The usual tempering temperature range is between 250
0C and 650 0C.

b) Internal stresses are removed at temperatures as low as 200 0C. The tempering of martensite is a
diffusional process, where the body centred tetragonal structure, which is supersaturated with
carbon, slowly transforms to tempered martensite according to the reaction,

martensite (BCT, single phase) →tempered martensite (α + Fe3C ).

In the range 40 0C to 200 0C, the martensite gradually changes its tetragonal structure and becomes body
centred cubic. The first submicroscopic precipitation of transition iron carbide occurs, of approximate
Fe2C structure.
In the range 200 0C to 400 0C, the precipitation of iron carbide continues, now as Fe3C, but still too fine to
be visible under the optical microscope.
In the range 425 0C to 600 0C, the very fine carbide particles begin to agglomerate into larger particles in
a matrix of ferrite, which are visible under the microscope.
In the range 650 0C to just under the eutectoid temperature, further agglomeration of the carbide
particles occur, as they coalesce into spheroidal particles of iron carbide in a ferrite matrix, known as
spheroidite.

c) As the tempering temperature increases the tempered martensite becomes softer, more ductile and
more tough. The table below summarises the approximate mechanical properties obtained.

Tempering temperature 0C Yield stress, MPa UTS, Mpa % Elongation Brinell hardness
200 - 2000 brittle 600
350 590 800 20 370
650 350 460 75 135

Page 5 of 5