steel structures lecture series

TEACHING MATERIAL ON STRUCTURAL STEEL DESIGN FOR CIVIL /

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING STUDENTS & FACULTIES

AUTHORS

Rangachari Narayanan

V. Kalyanaraman

A.R. Santhakumar

S.Seetharaman

S.R. Satish Kumar

S. Arul Jayachandran

R. Senthil

INTRODUCTION

The idea for this Project was born out of a lunchtime conversation this writer had with Mr. R.K.

Prasannan, Development Commissioner for Iron and Steel, and Mr. M.S. Ramanujam, the Regional

Development Commissioner (Ministry of Steel) in late 1998. It became obvious that the low usage of

Structural Steel in India was largely attributable to skills shortage in the effective use of this material in

construction. The urgent need to reorient the education of student engineers and to retrain the current

stock of practising professionals (based on the current state-of-the-art) was clearly identified. It was

noted that the British Steel industry, when faced with similar problems of skills shortage in the 1980's,

solved it by generating a Teaching Resource to enhance the teaching quality in the Universities, under

the expert direction of Professor Patrick Dowling. The present success of the British Steel Industry is

generally regarded as a direct consequence.

An Expert Team led by Professor Rangachari Narayanan, Retired Head of the Education and

Publications Division, The Steel Construction Institute, England, working in co-operation with

Professor V. Kalyanaraman, (Head of the Department of Civil Engineering at IIT Madras), Professor

A.R. Santha Kumar, (Dean, Anna University, Chennai) and Dr. S.Seetharaman (Assistant Director,

Structural Engineering Research Centre, Chennai), representing Dr. T.V.S.R. Appa Rao, (Director,

SERC, Chennai) was entrusted with the task of compiling this Teaching Resource which could be used

for the purposes outlined above. Dr. S.R. Mediratta, the Director General of the newly formed Institute

for Steel development and Growth (INSDAG) was requested to act as the facilitator. The Team

commenced its work in August 1999 with the added strength of three young experts, Dr. Satish Kumar

(IIT, Madras), Mr. Arul Jayachandran (SERC) and Mr. R. Senthil (Anna University). Rapid progress of

the work was made possible by the willing support given by the young Project Associates, Miss R. S.

Priyadarsini, Mr. S. Sambasiva Rao, Mr. G. Venkateswara Rao, Mr. Indranil Banerjee and Miss P. Usha

who joined the Team.

Till the late 1960's, Structural Steel Design was based on the Working Stress Method all over the

world. The more modern Limit State Design approach - developed in the early 1970's - is

technologically sound and results in significant economy in the completed structures. This is of

particular advantage as Steel is a reusable material and is environment-friendly. Moreover, modern

Steel Mills have made substantial improvements in the quality of finished steel in recent years. To

derive the fullest benefits from this improved steel, the Codes of Practice in the use of Steel will need

updating. Unfortunately, the Bureau of Indian Standards has not revised the Indian Codes for Steel

Construction to conform to Limit State methods, unlike the Codes for the Structural Use of Concrete.

This makes the use of steel in construction an uneconomic proposition. Professor Kalyanaraman of the

Indian Institute of Technology Madras had very kindly volunteered to provide the necessary leadership

for revising the Codes to modern Standards and the work is in progress.

There are literally hundreds of University Institutions in India teaching courses in Structural

Engineering. Being autonomous, all the Universities formulate their own syllabi. The depth and

breadth of coverage in Structural Steel Design as in other subjects does vary between

Institutions. In view of the obsolescence in the teaching of Structural Steel Design referred to in

the previous paragraph, all the Universities and Colleges would need support and assistance to

varying degrees in their need for state-of- the-art training material. Retraining of Engineers who

are currently employed in Industry and in Design Offices is an added challenge. The urgent need

for an uptodate Teaching Resource, as a reference material for the teachers and trainers, is

obvious.

A high-priority task was to upgrade and widen the academic base of Indian University teachers

in the subject of Structural Steel Design to the levels prevailing in the Western World, so that

they can teach this subject confidently at the Undergraduate Level. With the availability of this

support, many motivated young academics would be able to advance even further and develop an

infectious enthusiasm for the subject among the students.

In planning this task, the Expert Team identified the following challenges and opportunities.

Most of the teachers for whom this Resource is intended, have not had ANY education in

up-to-date Construction Technology. This situation is not different even in high profile

Colleges. The I.S. Codes and the present level of University teaching are out of date by

25 years. Many Masters Degree courses in Structural Engineering (even those organized

under Quality Improvement Programmes funded by AICTE) do not include any in-depth

coverage of Structural Stability and similar subjects, which are vital for the understanding

of behaviour of Steel Structures.

An overwhelming majority of Colleges do not have any worthwhile collection of up-to-

date books, largely on account of their high costs and diminishing budgets. Even if they

wanted to, there is no easy way for the Teachers to refer to modern books and enhance

their level of competence. (This is not an indictment of the Teachers; nevertheless this

leads to unsatisfactory teaching and subsequently to incompetence in the field practice of

Structural Engineering.)

Teachers in most Colleges are overworked. (Many Colleges routinely assign about 25

hours of teaching to very young teachers. Assuming that it takes 2 hours to prepare a

lecture and to mark the scripts, they are expected to work 75 hours a week, EVERY

WEEK!). The ready availability of a well-researched set of notes will be very helpful to

them.

Discussions with a selection of Engineering Teachers revealed that Structural Steel as a

subject is not very popular among senior academics and young and inexperienced

Teachers in their early part of their career are forced to teach it.

The level of research activity in Structural Steel is abysmally low. Only a handful of

people are engaged in research and generation of new knowledge. There are indeed

few Structural Steel-related patents taken out by any Engineer or Scientist working in

India.

There are very few refresher or in-career courses in Structural Steel Design.

Notwithstanding these limitations, the Team felt that they had an opportunity to set things right. With

the participation of the best known centres of expertise in India, the Expert team - with a total relevant

experience of over 150 years gained in this country and abroad - is perhaps the best that can be

assembled in this country. Some very bright young men and women, with excellent potential to become

future leaders in the profession, were recruited as Project Associates. The Team had access to all the

relevant books and journals. With these favourable conditions, the Team set out to assemble an up-to-

date and technically complete material, which could be used to cover the needs of a typical

undergraduate course. We obtained the syllabi from most of the Indian Universities, which helped to

guide us to formulate the contents of the Resource. The material generated is user-friendly and does not

demand references to many other books, - not available (in India) to the teachers. University Teachers

and panels of experts reviewed the drafts before finalisation. Drafts were also published in the web site

of INSDAG in instalments to enable University Teachers and other interested persons to review them.

The Members of the Expert team hope that the Resource material generated with so much effort and

care would help to eliminate an important gap in the training of Structural Engineers in the area of

Structural Steel design. Suggestions to improve the contents and constructive comments and criticisms

will be gratefully received by the Team.

An exciting aspect of the project was to discover the number of people in India with a lively interest in

the developments in the subject. The writer values the many new friends he has made in the course of

directing the Project and is grateful to the many academics - too numerous to mention - who devoted

their time to review and improve the Project. For those who donated their time so generously to the

Project, as well as those who funded it, there could be no greater reward for their efforts than to see the

benefits accruing to the next generation of Structural Engineers.

Rangachari Narayanan

SPONSORS

Preparation of Teaching Resource Material

Sponsored by: Ministry of Steel, Government of India

Workshops for University Faculty (June - July 2001)

Organised by :

Institute for Steel Development & Growth, Kolkata

Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi

Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai

BE College (DU), Sibpur

Sponsored by :

Ministry of Steel, Government of India

Joint Plant Committee

Co-sponsored by ;

Steel Authority of India Ltd.

Tata Steel

Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd.

Essar Steel Ltd.

Ispat Industries Ltd.

INSDAG acknowledges with thanks - the contributions made by Dr R

Narayanan and his associates of the Expert team (with full financial

support from Ministry of Steel) for preparation of Teaching Resource

Material and also for organizing one Workshop on Structural Steel

Design for University Faculty at IIT Madras during 13-18 November

2000.

INSDAG also thanks JPC, SAIL, Tata Steel, JVSL, Essar Steel and

Ispat Industries for providing financial support towards another set of

three Workshops at Mumbai, Calcutta and Delhi.

NOTATIONS

Preparation of Teaching Resource Material

Sponsored by : Ministry of Steel, Government of India

Workshops for University Faculty (June - July 2001)

Page1 Page2 Page3

A Area or Gross area of a cross section

Ae Effective area of a section

Aeff Effective area

An Net area of a section

Ast Area of an intermediate stiffener

At Tensile stress area of a bolt

a Effective throat size of a fillet weld

a1 Net sectional area of connected elements

a2 Gross sectional area of connected

B Overall width of an element

b Flat width of an element

beff Effective width of a compression element

ber Reduced effective width of a sub-element

beu Effective width of an unstiffened compression element

Cb Coefficient defining the variation of moments on a beam

CT Constant depending on the geometry of a T-section

CW Warping constant of a section

c Distance from the end of a beam to the load or the reaction

D Overall web depth

De Equivalent depth of an intermediately stiffened web

D2 Distance between the centre line of an intermediate web stiffener and the tension element

d Diameter of a bolt or Diameter of a spot weld

de Distance from the centre of a bolt to the end of an element

deff Effective diameter of a circular plug or elongated plug weld

dr Recommended tip diameter of an electrode

dw Visible diameter of a circular plug or elongated plug weld.

E Modulus of elasticity of steel

e Distance between a load and a reaction

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es Distance between the geometric neutral axis and the effective neutral axis of a section

Fc Applied axial compressive load

Fs Shear force (bolts)

Ft Applied tensile load

Fv Shear force

Fw Concentrated load on a web

fa Average stress in a flange

fc Applied compressive stress

G Shear modulus of steel

g Gauge, i.e. distance measured at right angles to the direction of stress in a member, centre-to-centre of holes in consecutive lines

h Vertical distance between two rows of connections in channel sections

I Second moment of area of a cross section about its critical axis

Imin Minimum required second moment of area of a stiffener

Is Second moment of area of a multiple stiffened element

Ix, Iy Second moment of area of a cross section about the x and y axes

respectively

J St Venant torsion constant of a section

K Buckling coefficient of an element

l Length of a member between support points

le Effective length of a member

Lw Length of a weld

M Applied moment on a beam

Mb Buckling resistance moment

Mc Moment capacity of a cross section

Mcr Critical bending moment to cause local buckling in a beam

Mcx Moment capacity in bending about the x axis in the absence of Fc and

My

Mcy Moment capacity in bending about the y axis in the absence of Fc and

Mx

ME Elastic lateral buckling moment of a beam

Mp Plastic moment capacity of a section Mx, My Moment about x and y axes respectively

My Yield moment of a section

N Number of 90 degree bends in a section

Pbs Bearing capacity of a bolt

Pc Buckling resistance under axial load

Pcs Short strut capacity

Pe Elastic flexural buckling load (Euler load) for a column

Pex, Pey

Elastic flexural buckling load (Euler load) for a column about x and y

axes respectively

Pfs Shear capacity of a fastener

Pft Tensile capacity of a fastener

Ps Shear capacity of a bolt or Shear capacity of a spot weld

PT Torsional buckling load of a column

PT Tensile capacity of a member or connection

PTF Torsional flexural buckling load of a column

Pv Shear capacity or shear buckling resistance

Pw Concentrated load resistance of a single web

Pc compressive strength

Pcr Local buckling stress of an element

Po Limiting compressive stress in a flat web

Pv Shear strength

Py Design strength of steel

Pw Design strength of weld

Q Factor defining the effective cross-sectional area of a section

qcr Shear buckling strength of a web

r Inside bend radius or Radius of gyration

rcy Radius of gyration of a channel about its centroidal axis parallel to the

web

ri Radius of gyration of an I section

ro Polar radius of gyration of a section about the shear centre rx, ry Radii of gyration of a section about the x and y axes respectively

Zp Plastic modulus of a section

S

Distance between the centres of bolts normal to the line of applied force

or, where there is only a single line of bolts, the width of the sheet or Leg length of a fillet weld or Standard deviation

Sp Staggered pitch, i.e. the distance, measured parallel to the direction of stress in a member, centre-to-centre of holes in consecutive lines

t Net material thickness

ts Equivalent thickness of a flat element to replace a multiple stiffened

element for calculation purposes t1, t2 Thickness of thinner and thicker materials connected by spot welding

Us Ultimate tensile strength of steel

u Deflection of a flange towards the neutral axis due to flange curling

W Total distributed load on a purlin

Wd Weight of cladding acting on a sheeting rail

Ww Wind load acting on a sheeting rail

w Flat width of a sub-element or Intensity of load on a beam

ws Equivalent width of a flat element to replace a multiple stiffened element for calculation purposes

x0 Distance from the shear centre to the centroid of a section measured along the x axis of symmetry

fy Yield strength of steel

Ysa Average yield strength of a cold formed section

Ysac Modified average yield strength in the presence of local buckling

y Distance of a flange from the neutral axis

Zc Compression modulus of a section in bending

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapters Description of Chapters

No. 1 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF STRUCTURAL STEELS

No. 2 CORROSION, FIRE PROTECTION AND FATIGUE CONSIDERATIONS

OF STEEL STRUCTURES

No. 3 ROLE OF STRUCTURAL ENGINEER IN THE 21st CENTURY

No. 4 INTRODUCTION TO LIMIT STATES

No. 5 DESIGN OF TENSION MEMBERS

No. 6 INTRODUCTION TO COLUMN BUCKLING

No. 7 INTRODUCTION TO PLATE BUCKLING

No. 8 LOCAL BUCKLING AND SECTION CLASSIFICATION

No. 9 LATERALLY RESTRAINED BEAMS

No. 10 DESIGN OF AXIALLY LOADED COLUMNS

No. 11 UNRESTRAINED BEAM DESIGN I

No. 12 UNRESTRAINED BEAM DESIGN II

No. 13 DESIGN OF BEAM-COLUMNS - I

No. 14 DESIGN OF BEAM-COLUMNS - II

No. 14 (Ex) DESIGN OF BEAM-COLUMNS - II (Worked Out Examples)

No. 15 PLATE GIRDERS - I

No. 16 PLATE GIRDERS II

No. 16 (Ex) PLATE GIRDERS II (Worked Out Examples)

No. 17 BEAMS SUBJECTED TO TORSION AND BENDING -I

No. 18 BEAMS SUBJECTED TO TORSION AND BENDING - II

No. 19 COLD FORMED STEEL SECTIONS I

No. 20 COLD FORMED STEEL SECTIONS- II

No. 21 COMPOSITE BEAMS I

No. 22 COMPOSITE BEAMS II

No. 23 COMPOSITE FLOORS - I

No. 24 COMPOSITE FLOORS - II

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No. 24 (Ex) COMPOSITE FLOORS - II (Worked Out Examples)

No. 25 STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE COLUMNS-I

No. 26 STEEL-CONCRETE COMPOSITE COLUMNS-II

No. 27 TRUSSES

No. 28 STEEL BEAMS WITH WEB OPENINGS

No. 29 CONNECTION DESIGN DESIGN REQUIREMENTS

No. 30 WELDS STATIC AND FATIGUE STRENGTH I

No. 31 WELDS- STATIC AND FATIGUE STRENGTH II

No. 31 (Ex) WELDS- STATIC AND FATIGUE STRENGTH II (Worked Out Examples)

No. 32 WELD - STATIC AND FATIGUE STRENGTH -III

No. 33 BOLTED CONNECTIONS I

No. 34 BOLTED CONNECTIONS II

No. 34 (Ex) BOLTED CONNECTIONS II (Worked Out Examples)

No. 35 PLASTIC ANALYSIS

No. 36 PORTAL FRAMES

No. 36 (Ex) COMPOSITE FLOORS - I

No. 37 MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS - I

No. 38 MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS - II

No. 38 (Ex) MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS - II (Worked Out Examples)

No. 39 MULTI-STOREY BUILDINGS III

No. 40 MULTI STOREY BUILDINGS IV

No. 41 FABRICATION AND ERECTION OF STRUCTURAL STEELWORK

No. 42 LEARNING FROM FAILURES: CASE STUDIES

No. 43 STEEL BRIDGES - I

No. 44 STEEL BRIDGES -II

No. 44 (Ex) COMPOSITE FLOORS - I

No. 45 EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN OF STEEL STRUCTURES

No. 45 (Ex) EARTHQUAKE RESISTANT DESIGN OF STEEL STRUCTURES (Worked

Out Examples)

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HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERISTICS OF STRUCTURAL STEELS


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1.0 INTRODUCTION According to published literature, iron was primarily used for making weapons in ancient times. The great Indian epics, Ramayana and Mahabharatha, contain evidence that our forefathers knew about the usage of iron long before many other countries knew about it! Iron is thus very native to India! This is a logical conclusion because, our war-centric epics date back to several thousand years BC. The backdrop of these epics revolves around the eastern, central and southern parts of our country, where there are still huge deposits of iron ore. Not only during Vedic times but also in medieval times, our country has been an epitome of iron wonders. A review in the subsequent sections shows that in modern times too, our country has good examples of construction in steel. Under compelling reasons, both economic and strategic, the western countries brought about the industrial revolution during the last century. Possibly because our country was under the colonial rule at that time and also due to a mood of complacency, our country failed to catch up with the western industrial revolution. During the last 50 years our country has continued to lag behind in infrastructure development and consequently poor consumption of iron and steel. Published studies by the Steel Construction Institute (U.K) have established that countries which have a higher rate of growth in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), have proportionately higher consumption of iron and steel. Soon after independence, our country had to gear itself to meet the demands for development and industrial growth and in the first few Five Year plans made reasonable strides in the area of production and usage of iron and steel. Due to various reasons, steel consumption in our country has been stagnating during the past 2-3 years. Further, steel industry is facing stiff global competition through imports. There is also considerable under utilisation of installed capacity for steel production. For sustenance of steel industry, extensive usage of structural steel in the construction sector is an important requirement. Our country has to live up to the global competition as we have done in Information Technology! In this chapter, we will first discuss about the historical development of iron and steel in the world and India. Since the present days are the days of inter-disciplinary approach to engineering solutions, we will first review the metallurgical aspect of structural steels and then proceed to discuss, the mechanical properties of steel, which are very relevant to structural designers. The approach of treating the metallurgical and mechanical aspects of steel together helps the designer in structural steelwork, to use steel effectively in tune with its performance requirement. Later, we will briefly review the production process of steel, which gives an idea about the different structural steels being produced. We will also review the special variety of steels (such as stainless steels and cold rolled steels). Copyright reserved

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2.0 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT Ancient Hittis were the first users of iron some 3 to 4 millenniums ago. Their language was altered to Indo European and they were native of Asia Minor. There is archaeological evidence of usage of iron dating back to 1000 BC, when Indus valley, Egyptians and probably the Greeks used iron for structures and weapons. Thus, iron industry has a long ancestry. Wrought iron had been produced from the time of middle ages, if not before, through the firing of iron ore and charcoal in bloomery. This method was replaced by blast furnaces from 1490 onwards. With the aid of water-powered bellows, blast furnaces were used for increased output and continuous production. A century later, rolling mill was introduced for enhanced output. The traditional use of wrought iron was principally as dowels and ties to strengthen masonry structures. As early as 6th century, iron tie-bars had been incorporated in arches of Haghia Sophia in Istanbul. Renaissance domes often relied on linked bars to reinforce their bases. A new degree of sophistication was reached in the 1770 in the design of Pantheon in Paris. Fig. 1 World's first cast iron bridge - Coalbrookadale bridge at Shropshire, U.K(Source: John H. Stephens, The Guinness book of Structures (Bridges, towers,tunnels, dams), 1976)

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Till the 18th century the output of charcoal fired blast furnaces was almost fully converted to wrought iron production, with about 5% being used for casting. The most obvious cast iron items were the cannons in the early 16th century. Galleries for the House of Commons in England were built of slender cast iron columns in 1706 and cast iron railings were erected around St. Pauls Cathedral in London in 1710. Abraham Darby discovered smelting of iron with coke in 1709. This led to further improvements by 1780s when workable wrought iron was developed. The iron master Henry Cort took out two patents in 1783-84, one for a coal-fired refractory furnace and the other for a method of rolling iron into standard shapes. Without the ability to roll wrought iron (into standard shapes), structural advances, which we see today, would never have taken place.

Fig.2 The second Hooghly cable stayed bridge Technological revolution, industrial revolution and growth of mills continued in the West and this increased the use of iron in structures. Large-scale use of iron for structural purposes started in the Europe in the later part of the 18th Century. The first of its kind was the 100 feet Coalbrookadale arch bridge in England (Fig.1), constructed in 1779. This was a large size cast iron bridge. The use of cast iron as a primary construction material continued up to about 1840 and then onwards, there was a preference towards wrought iron, which is more ductile and malleable. The evolution of making better steel continued with elements like manganese being added during the manufacturing process. In 1855, Sir Henry Bessemer of England invented and patented the process of making steel. It is also worth mentioning that William Kelly of USA had also developed the technique of making steel at about the same time. Until the earlier part of the 19th century, the Bessemer process was very popular. Along with Bessemer process, Siemens Martin process of open-hearth technique made commercial steel popular in the 19th century. In the later part of the 19th century and early 20th century, there had been a

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revolution in making better and newer grades of steel with the advent of newer technologies. This trend has continued until now and today we have very many variety of steels produced by adding appropriate quantities of alloying elements such as carbon, manganese, silicon, chromium, nickel and molybdenum etc to suit the needs of broad and diverse range of applications. Fig. 3 Jogighopa Road-cum-rail bridge across the river Brahmaputra 2.1 Historical development of Iron and Steel in India As mentioned earlier there are numerous examples of usage of iron in our country in the great epics Ramayana and Mahabharatha. However the archaeological evidence of usage of iron in our country, is from the Indus valley civilisation. There are evidences of iron being used as weapons and even some instruments. The iron pillar made in the 5th century (standing till today in Mehrauli Village, Delhi, within a few yards from Kutub Minar) evokes the interest and excitement of all the enlightened visitors. Scientists describe this as a "Rustless Wonder". Another example in south India is the Iron post in Kodachadri Village in Karnataka, which has 14 metres tall Dwaja Stamba reported to have remained without rusting for nearly 1 millennia. The exciting aspects of these structures is not merely the obvious fact of technological advances in India at that time, but in the developments of techniques for handling, lifting, erecting and securing such obviously heavy artefacts. These two are merely examples besides several others. The usage of iron in wars during Moghul era of the history is well documented. India under the British rule experienced growth of iron and steel possibly because of the fallout of technological development of steel in the U.K. We can see several steel structures in public buildings, railway stations and bridges, which testifies the growth of steel in the

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colonial past. The Rabindra Sethu" Howrah Bridge in Calcutta stands testimony to a marvel in steel. Even after its service life, Howrah Bridge today stands as a monument. The recent example is the Second Hooghly cable stayed bridge at Calcutta (Fig. 2), which involves 13,200 tonnes of steel. Similarly the Jogighopa rail-cum-road bridge across the river Brahmaputra (Fig. 3) is an example of steel intensive construction, which used 20,000 tonnes of steel. There are numerous bridges, especially for railways built, exclusively using steel. As far as production of steel in India is concerned, as early as in 1907, Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata set up the first steel manufacturing plant at Jamshedpur. Later Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru realised the potential for the usage of steel in India and authorised the setting up of major steel plants at Bhilai, Rourkela and Durgapur in the first two five year plans. In Karnataka Sir Mokshakundam Visweswarayya established the Bhadravati Steel Plant. Today we also have a number of private sector steel plants in India. The annual production of steel in 1999-2000 has touched about 25 million tonnes and this is slated to grow at a faster rate. However, when compared to countries like USA, UK, Japan, China and South Korea the per capita consumption of steel in India is extremely low at 27.5 kg/person/year. By way of comparison, rapidly growing economies like China consume about 80 kg/person/year. 3.0 METALLURGY OF STEEL There is a definite need for engineers involved in structural steelwork to acquaint themselves with some metallurgical aspects of steel. This will help the structural engineer to understand ductile behaviour of steel under load, welding during fabrication and erection and other important aspects of steel technology such as corrosion and fire protection. To this end, in the following sections, we shall discuss briefly the metallurgical composition of steel, its effect on heating and cooling and the effects of alloying elements such as carbon, manganese and other additive metals. 3.1 The crystal structure and the transformation of iron Pure iron when heated from room temperature to its melting point, undergoes several crystalline transformations and exhibits two allotropic modifications such as (i) body centred cubic crystal (bcc), (ii) face centred cubic crystal (fcc) as shown in Fig.4. When iron changes from one modification to the other, it involves the latent heat of transformation. If iron is heated steadily, the rise in temperature would be interrupted when the transformation starts from one phase to the other and the temperature remains constant until the transformations are completed. The flat portion of the heating/cooling curve in Fig. 5 exemplifies this. On cooling of molten iron to room temperature, the transformations are reversed and almost at the same temperature when heated as shown in Fig. 5. Iron upto a temperature of 910C remains as ferrite or -iron with bcc crystalline structure. Iron is ferromagnetic at room temperature, its magnetism decreases with increase in temperature and vanishes at about 768C called the Curie point. The iron that exists between 768C and 910C is called the -iron with a bcc structure. However, in the realm of metallurgy, this classification does not have much significance.

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Between 910C and 1400C, iron transforms itself into austenite or -iron with face centred cubic (fcc) structure. When temperature is further increased, austenite reverts itself back to bcc structure, called the -ferrite. Iron becomes molten beyond 1539C. The different phases of iron are summarised in Table 1.

(b) Face centred cube (a) Body centred cube (bcc)

Fig.4 Crystal structure of Iron

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Temp 0 C

0

bcc

768 0C

Non

-Mag

netic

Heating bcc

fcc

1539 0 C

1400 0 C

910 0 C

Cooling

Mag

netic

Time Fig.5 Allotropy of Iron

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Table 1: Various forms of Iron Stable Temp. Range 0C Form of matter Phase Identification symbol >2740 Gaseous Gas Gas 1539-2740 Liquid Liquid Liquid 1400-1539 Solid bcc -ferrite 910-1400 Solid fcc -austenite


Temperature in 0C

Carbon content in wt. %

Peritectic point

1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 6.0 5.0 6.67

910 0C

1147 0C

723 0C

1493 0C 0

.02%

ferr

ite

phase Austenite

+ Liquid

Liquid

Fe3C+ Liquid

+ Fe3C Austenite + Cementite

+ Fe3C Ferrite + Cementite

Cementite

Eutectoid point

+

0.0

0.0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1534 0C 0

.1%

f

erri

te

0.8% 4.3%

Eutectic point

Fig.7 Iron Iron-Carbide phase diagram

This mechanical distortion of crystal lattice interferes with the external applied strain to the crystal lattice, by mechanically blocking the dislocation of the crystal lattices. In other words, they provide mechanical strength. Obviously adding more and more carbon to iron (upto solubility of iron) results in more and more distortion of the crystal lattices and hence provides increased mechanical strength. However, solubility of more carbon influences negatively with another important property of iron called the ductility (ability of iron to undergo large plastic deformation). The -iron or ferrite is very soft and it flows plastically. Hence we see that when more carbon is added, enhanced mechanical strength is obtained, but ductility is reduced. Increase in carbon content is not the only way, and certainly not the desirable way to get increased strength of steels. More amount

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of carbon causes problems during the welding process. We will see later, how both mechanical strength and ductility of steel could be improved even with low carbon content. The iron-carbon equilibrium diagram, which is a plot of transformation of iron with respect to carbon content and temperature, is shown in Fig.7. This diagram is also called iron-iron carbide diagram. The important metallurgical terms, used in the diagram, are presented below. Ferrite (): Virtually pure iron with body centred cubic crystal structure (bcc). It is stable at all temperatures upto 9100C. The carbon solubility in ferrite depends upon the temperature; the maximum being 0.02% at 7230C. Cementite: Iron carbide (Fe3C), a compound iron and carbon containing 6.67% carbon by weight. Pearlite: A fine mixture of ferrite and cementite arranged in lamellar form. It is stable at all temperatures below 723 oC. Austenite (): Austenite is a face centred cubic structure (fcc). It is stable at temperatures above 723 oC depending upon carbon content. It can dissolve upto 2% carbon. These terms are summarised in Table 2. Temp 0 C

0.0

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2

7230C

Austenite () 11470C

Ferrite ()

Ferrite + Pearlite

Ferrite + Austenite

Austenite + Cementite

l

k

j

i

a

Hypo-Eutectoid steel

b c

Hyper-Eutectoid steel

d

Cementite + Pearlite

Eutectoid Point

Weight % of Carbon Fig.8 The Eutectoid section of the Iron Iron Carbon phase diagram The maximum solubility of carbon in the form of Fe3C in iron is 6.67%. Addition of carbon to iron beyond this percentage would result in formation of free carbon or graphite in iron. At 6.67% of carbon, iron transforms completely into cementite or Fe3C (Iron Carbide). In the iron-carbon phase diagram, there are three important points such as (1)

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eutectoid point (2) eutectic point and (3) peritectic point shown in dotted circles in Fig.7. Generally carbon content in structural steels is in the range of 0.12-0.25%. Upto 2% carbon, we get a structure of ferrite + pearlite or pearlite + cementite depending upon whether carbon content is less than 0.8% or beyond 0.8%. Beyond 2% carbon in iron, cast iron is formed.

Table 2: Metallurgical terms of iron

Name Metallurgical term % Carbon(max) Crystal structure

- Iron Ferrite 0.02 bcc Fe3C Cementite 6.67 - Ferrite + Cementite laminar mixture

Pearlite

0.80 (overall)

-

- Iron Austenite 2.0 (depends on temperature)

fcc

3.3 The Structural Steels or ferrite Pearlite Steels The iron-iron carbide portion of the phase diagram that is of interest to structural engineers is shown in Fig.8. The phase diagram is divided into two parts called hypoeutectoid steels (steels with carbon content to the left of eutectoid point [0.8% carbon]) and hyper eutectoid steels which have carbon content to the right of the eutectoid point. It is seen from the figure that iron containing very low percentage of carbon (0.002%) called very low carbon steels will have 100% ferrite microstructure (grains or crystals of ferrite with irregular boundaries) as shown in Fig. 9(a). Ferrite is soft and ductile with very low mechanical strength. The microstructure of 0.20% carbon steel is shown Fig. 9(b). This microstructure at ambient temperature has a mixture of what is known as pearlite and ferrite as can be seen in Fig. 8. Hence we see that ordinary structural steels have a pearlite + ferrite microstructure. However, it is important to note that steel of 0.20% carbon ends up in pearlite + ferrite microstructure, only when it is cooled very slowly from higher temperature during manufacture. When the rate of cooling is faster, the normal pearlite + ferrite microstructure may not form, instead some other microstructure called bainite or martensite may result. We will consider how the microstructures of structural steel are formed by the slow cooling at 0.2% carbon. At about 9000C, this steel has austenite microstructure. This is shown as point i in Fig. 8. When steel is slowly cooled, the transformation would start on reaching the point j. At this point, the alloy enters a two-phase field of ferrite and austenite. On reaching the point, ferrite starts nucleating around the grain boundaries of austenite as shown in Fig. 10(a). By slowly cooling to point 'k', the ferrite grains grow in size and diffusion of carbon takes place from ferrite regions into the austenite regions as shown in Fig. 10(b), since ferrite cannot retain carbon above 0.002% at room temperature. At this point it is seen that a network of ferrite crystals surrounds each austenite grain. On slow cooling to point l the remaining austenite gets transformed into pearlite as

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shown in Fig.10(c). Pearlite is a lamellar mixture of ferrite and cementite. The amount of pearlite for a given carbon content is usually calculated using the lever rule assuming 0% carbon in ferrite as given below:

Volume Carbonof%8.0

Carbonof%Pearliteoffraction =

For example for microstructure of a 0.2% carbon steel would consist of a quarter of pearlite and three- quarters of ferrite. As explained earlier, ferrite is soft and ductile and pearlite is hard and it imparts mechanical strength to steel. The higher the carbon content, the higher would be the pearlite content and hence higher mechanical strength. Conversely, when the pearlite content increases, the ferrite content decreases and hence the ductility is reduced. The microstructure of ferrite-pearlite steels is given in Fig.9 (b). The white portion in Fig.9 (b) is ferrite and the black is pearlite. The constituents of the specimen are (pearlite + ferrite), but the phases are (ferrite + cementite). At the Eutectoid point where the carbon content is 0.8%, a fully lamellar pearlite structure is obtained as shown in Fig.9(c).

Fig.9 Microstructures of steels (a)100% Ferrite in extra low carbon steel (b)Ferrite+Pearlite (c) 100% Pearlite in eutectoid steel (d)Pearlite+Cementite inhyper-eutectoid steel (Source: Thelning K.E,. Steel and its heattreatment, Butterworths, 1984.)

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Note: Microstructures at (c) and (d) are not observed in structural steels.

Austenite Ferrite nuclei

(a) (b)

Ferrite Austenite

C

PearliteFerrite

(c)

Fig.10 Different stages of formation of Pearlite We also see from Fig.9 (d) that in the case of hyper eutectoid steels (steels having carbon content more than 0.8%), a microstructure of (cementite + pearlite) is obtained. Ofcourse microstructures (c) and (d) are not observed in structural steels. As mentioned earlier, increase in carbon content is not the only way to obtain increased mechanical strength. We would see in the next section, the other methods of increasing the strength of steel. 3.4 Strengthening structural steels Cooling rate of steel from austenite region to room temperature produces different microstructures, which impart different mechanical properties. In the case of structural steels, the (pearlite + ferrite) microstructure is obtained after austenitising, by cooling it very slowly in a furnace. This process of slow cooling in a furnace is called annealing. As, mentioned in the earlier section, the formation of pearlite, which is responsible for mechanical strength, involves diffusion of carbon from ferrite to austenite. In the annealing process sufficient time is given for the carbon diffusion and other transformation processes to get completed. Hence by full annealing we get larger size pearlite crystals as shown in the cooling diagram in Fig.11. It is very important to note that the grain size of crystal is an important parameter in strengthening of steel. The yield strength of steel is related to grain size by the equation

dkff 0y += (1)

where fy is the yield strength, f0 is the yield strength of very large isolated crystals (for mild steel this is taken as 5 N/mm2 ) and k is a constant, which for mild steel is 38 N/mm3/2. From Eq.1 we see that decreasing the grain size could enhance the yield strength. We will see in the following section as to how this reduction of grain size could be controlled. The grain size has an influence both in the case of mechanical strength and the temperature range of the ductile-brittle transition (temperature at which steel

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would become brittle from a ductile behaviour). When steel is fully annealed, there is enough time for the diffusion or shuffling of carbon atoms and larger crystallisation is possible. However, if we increase the cooling rate, then transformation that generally needs a specified time, would not keep up with the falling temperature. When we normalise (cool in air) steel, we obtain a small increase in the ferrite content and a finer lamellar pearlite as shown in the cooling curve in Fig.11. Since pearlite is responsible for mechanical strength, decrease in its grain size we get improved mechanical strength. Hence we see that another method of increasing the mechanical strength of steel is by normalising. Temp 0 C

Time in Seconds

Eutectoid temperature

Normalise Oil quench

Water quench

Full annealing

Course Pearlite

Fine Pearlite

Martensite+Pearlite

Martensite

10510410001001 10

800

600

400

200

0.0

Fig.11 Variation of microstructure as a function of cooling When structural steel sections are produced by hot rolling process, which involves the temperature range of austenite, during rolling at this high temperature, the heavy mechanical deformation results in finer size grains. In addition to that, rolling at the temperature of austenite, they are allowed to cool in air (normalising) and hence both the procedures aid the formation of smaller size crystals and hence increased mechanical strength. 3.5 Rapid cooling of steels In the earlier section we saw that steel is made to under-cool by normalising (by giving lesser cooling time than required by the equilibrium state of the constitutional diagram), it

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results in finer microstructure. However, if we cool steel very rapidly, say quenching in cold water, there is insufficient time for the shuffling or diffusion of carbon atoms and hence the formation of ferrite + pearlite is prevented. However, such a fast cooling results in martensite. Slightly less rapid cooling could result in a product called bainite which is dependent on the composition of steel. The formation of martensite is shown in Fig.11 by rapid cooling. It is also seen from Fig.11 that, oil quenching where cooling rate which is slightly slower, results in a mixture of martensite + pearlite. Fig.12 shows the formation of different composition for varied cooling rates. It is seen from Fig.12 that bainite is formed above a temperature of about 300C and between a cooling rate of 8.4C/sec to 0.0062C/sec. Martensite is formed by rapid cooling rate less than 8.4C/sec. Very slow cooling, say full annealing does not form both Martensite and Bainite. Fig.12 clearly shows that the final microstructure of steel is dependent on cooling rate. Martensite is very hard and less ductile. Martensitic structure is not desirable in structural steel sections used in construction, because its welding becomes very difficult. However, high strength bolts and some other important accessories have predominantly martensitic structure. The hardness of martensite is a function of carbon content. When martensite is heated to a temperature of 600C it softens and the toughness is improved. This process of reheating martensite is called tempering. This process of quenching and tempering results in very many varieties of steel depending upon the requirement for hardness, wear resistance, strength and toughness. Temp 0 C

Time in Seconds

Eutectoid temperature

0 .330C/sec 0 .00620C/sec

0 .0230C/sec

8.40C/sec

Martensite Ferrite Bainite

Ferrite Pearlite

Austenite Bainite

Austenite Martensite

Course Pearlite

Martensite Ferrite Bainite Pearlite

Martensite+Bainite

Martensite

10510410001001 10

800

600

400

200

0.0

Fig.12 Rate of cooling Vs microstructure

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3.6 Inclusions and alloying elements in steel Steel contains impurities such as phosphorous and sulphur and they eventually form phosphides and sulphides which are harmful to the toughness of the steel. Hence it is desirable to keep these elements less than 0.05%. Phosphorous could be easily removed compared to sulphur. If manganese (Mn) is added to steel, it forms a less harmful manganese sulphide (MnS) rather than the harmful iron sulphide. Sometimes calcium, cerium, and other rare earth elements are added to the refined molten steel. They combine with sulphur to form less harmful elements. Steel treated this way has good toughness and such steels are used in special applications where toughness is the criteria. The addition of manganese also increases the under cooling before the start of the formation of ferrite+ pearlite. This gives fine-grained ferrite and more evenly divided pearlite. Since the atomic diameter of manganese is larger that the atomic diameter of iron, manganese exists as substitutional solid solution in ferrite crystals, by displacing the smaller iron atoms as shown in Fig.13. This improves the strength of ferrite because the distortion of crystal lattice due to the presence of manganese blocks the mechanical movement of the crystal lattices. However, manganese content cannot be increased unduely, as it might become harmful. Increased manganese content increases the formation of martensite and hence hardness and raises its ductile to brittle transition temperature (temperature at which steel which is normally ductile becomes brittle). Because of these reasons, manganese is restricted to 1.5% by weight. Based on the manganese content, steels are classified as carbon-manganese steels (Mn>1%) and carbon steels (Mn


distributed. Today steel with still higher performance are being developed all over the world to meet the following specifications such as: (a) high strength with yield strength of 480 MPa and 690 MPa, (b) excellent weldability without any need for preheating, (c) extremely high toughness with charpy V notch values of 270 N-m @ 23oC compared with current bridge design requirement of 20 N.-m @ 23oC, and (d) corrosion resistance comparable to that of weathering steel. (The terminology used above has been discussed later in this chapter). The micro alloyed steels are more expensive than ordinary structural steels, however, their strength and performance outweighs the extra cost. Some typical steels with their composition range and properties and their relevant codes of practice, presently produced in India, are given in Tables 3 and 4. These steels are adequate in many structural applications but from the perspective of ductile response, the structural engineer in cautioned against using unfamiliar steel grades, without checking the producer supplied properties. Weldability of steel is closely related to the amount of carbon in steel. Weldability is also affected by the presence of other elements. The combined effect of carbon and other alloying elements on the weldability is given by carbon equivalent value (Ceq), which is given by Ceq =%C + % Mn/6 + (% Cr + % Mo + % V)/5+(% Ni + % Cu)/15 The steel is considered to be weldable without preheating, if Ceq < 0.42%. However, if carbon is less than 0.12% then Ceq can be tolerated upto 0.45%.

Table 3 Types of steel and their relevant IS standards Type of steel Relevant IS standards Structural steel 226(withdrawn),2062,3502,1977,961,8500 Steel for bars, rivets etc. 1148,1149,1570,2073,7388,4431,4432,

5517 Steel for tubes and pipes 1239,1914,1978

Table 4 Chemical composition of some typical structural steels

Type of

steel Designa-tion

IS: code

C S Mn P Si Cr Carbon equiva-lent

Fe 410A 2062 0.23 .050 1.5 .050 - - SK 0.42

Fe 410B 2062 0.22 .045 1.5 .045 0.4 - SK 0.41

Standard structural steel

Fe 410C 2062 0.20 .040 1.5 .040 0.4 - K 0.39 Fe 440 8500 0.20 .050 1.3 .050 .45 0.40 Fe540 8500 0.20 .045 1.6 .045 .45 0.44

Micro alloyed high strength steel Fe590 8500 0.22 .045 1.8 .045 .45 0.48

K- killed steel SK- Semi Killed steel (Explained in section 6.2)

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3.7 Thermo- Mechanically Control Process (TMCP) steels With increase in height, size and span in buildings, higher strength, longer section and heavier thickness are required for steel products to be applied. In the conventional method, increased strength is secured by increasing addition of alloying elements. However, such an addition adversely results in deterioration of weld crack resistance due to increase in carbon equivalent (Ceq ) and lowering of weld efficiency, due to the necessity to secure high pre-heating temperatures. To cope up with such requirements, Thermo-Mechanical Control Process (TMCP) steels with yield strength of 490 Mpa are being produced in countries like Japan. TMCP allows production of steel products having higher strength but carbon equivalent similar to those of conventional steels. Even for extra heavy sections, excellent weldabilty and stable strength can be achieved through application of TMCP. Even for thickness greater than 40 mm TMCP steels are finding wide applications. 4.0 STAINLESS STEELS In an iron-chromium alloy, when chromium content is increased to about 11%, the resulting material is generally classified as a stainless steel. This is because at this minimum level of chromium, a thin protective passive film forms spontaneously on steel, which acts as a barrier to protect the steel from corrosion. On further increase in chromium content, the passive film is strengthened and achieves the ability to repair itself, if it gets damaged in the corrosive environment. 'Ni' addition in stainless steel improves corrosion resistance in reducing environments such as sulphuric acid. It also changes the crystal structure from bcc to fcc thereby improving its ductility, toughness and weldability. 'Mo' increases pitting and crevice corrosion in chloride environments. Stainless steel is attractive to the architects despite its high cost, as it provides a combined effect of aesthetics, strength and durability. Now a days, stainless steel is used extensively in building construction. For example, the worlds tallest twin tower situated in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia used about 4000 tonnes of stainless steel made in India! Table 5 gives typical grades of stainless steel, which are used in building construction.

Table 5 Stainless Steel grades and their usage

Grade of stainless steel

Usage

316 (18% Cr) Profiled roofing, cladding, gutters, facades and hand railings - in highly polluted environments

304 (18% Cr-(% Ni) Decorative elements in areas near coast line. Also for kitchen and sanitary wares - coastal and less polluted areas

430 (17% Cr) Roofing, gutters, decorative wall tiles, hallow structural sections non-polluted environments

409 (11% Cr) Painted roofing- non-polluted environments Stainless steels are available in variety of finishes and it enhances the aesthetics of the structure. On Life Cycle cost Analysis (LCA), stainless steel works out to be economical

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in many situations. Increased usage of stainless steel in the construction sector is expected, as awareness on LCA improves among architects and consulting engineers. 5.0 MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STEEL 5.1 Stress strain behaviour: Tensile test The stress-strain curve for steel is generally obtained from tensile test on standard specimens as shown in Fig.14. The details of the specimen and the method of testing is elaborated in IS: 1608 (1995). The important parameters are the gauge length Lc and the initial cross section area So. The loads are applied through the threaded or shouldered ends. The initial gauge length is taken as 5.65 (So)1/2 in the case of rectangular specimen and it is five times the diameter in the case of circular specimen. A typical stress-strain curve of the tensile test coupon is shown in Fig.15 in which a sharp change in yield point followed by plastic strain is observed. When the specimen undergoes deformation after yielding, Luders lines or Luders bands are observed on the surface of the specimen as shown in Fig.16. These bands represent the region, which has deformed plastically and as the load is increased, they extend to the full gauge length. This occurs over the Luders strain of 1 to 2% for structural mild steel. After a certain amount of the plastic deformation of the material, due to reorientation of the crystal structure an increase in load is observed with increase in strain. This range is called the strain hardening range. After a little increase in load, the specimen eventually fractures. After the failure it is seen that the fractured surface of the two pieces form a cup and cone arrangement. This cup and cone fracture is considered to be an indication of ductile fracture. It is seen from Fig.15 that the elastic strain is up to y followed by a yield plateau between strains y and sh and a strain hardening range start at sh and the specimen fail at ult where y, sh and ult are the strains at onset of yielding, strain hardening and failure respectively.

L

r t

d

Area=S0-

Lc

P

P

Fig.14 Standard tensile test specimen Depending on the steel used, sh generally varies between 5 to 15 y, with an average value of 10 y typically used in many applications. For all structural steels, the modulus of

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elasticity can be taken as 205,000 MPa and the tangent modus at the onset of strain hardening is roughly 1/30th of that value or approximately 6700 MPa.

Variation due to Luders bands

Strain hardening range

Esh

Plastic range

Elastic range

sh 10yy

f

fy

Fig.15 Stress strain curve for sharp yielding structural steels

Deformed regions

P

Moving edges of Luders band

P

Fig.16 Luders bands in tensile test specimen Certain steels, due to their specific microstructure, do not show a sharp yield point but rather they yield continuously as shown in Fig. 17. For such steels the yield stress is always taken as the stress at which a line at 0.2% strain, parallel to the elastic portion, intercepts the stress strain curve. This is shown in Fig. 17. A schematic diagram of the tensile coupon at failure is shown in Fig.18. It is seen that approximately at the mid section the area is S compared to original area S0. Since S is the actual area experiencing the strain, the true stress is given by ft = P/S, where P is the load.

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f

y

fy

0.2% strain

Uniform plastic

Fracture

0.2% proof stress

Elastic

Non-uniform plastic

Fig. 17 Stress strain curve for continuously yielding structural steels

P

Area=S

L

P

Fig.18 Tensile test specimen before rupture However S is very difficult to evaluate compared to S0 and the nominal stress or the engineering stress is given by fn = P/ S0 . Similarly, the engineering strain is taken as the ratio of the change in length to original length. However the true strain is obtained when instantaneous strain is integrated over the whole of the elongation, given by

==

0

L

0Lt L

Llnldl (2)

By suitable manipulation it could be shown that

)1(ff nnt += (3)

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and similarly

)1ln( nt += (4) where ft and fn are the true and nominal stresses respectively and t and n are the true and nominal strains respectively. 5.2 Hardness Hardness is regarded as the resistance of a material to indentations and scratching. This is generally determined by forcing an indentor on to the surface. The resultant deformation in steel is both elastic and plastic. There are several methods using which the hardness of a metal could be found out. They basically differ in the form of the indentor, which is used on to the surface. They are presented in Table 6.

Table 6 Hardness testing methods and their indentors

Hardness Testing Method Indentor (a) Brinell hardness Steel ball (b) Vickers hardness Square based diamond

pyramids of 135 O included angle

(c ) Rockwell hardness Diamond core with 120 O included angle

Note: Rockwell hardness testing is not normally used for structural steels. In all the above cases, hardness number is related to the ratio of the applied load to the surface area of the indentation formed. The testing procedure involves forcing the indentor on to the surface at a particular road. On removal, the size of indentation is measured using a microscope. Based on the size of the indentation, hardness is worked out. For example, Brinell hardness (BHN) is given by the ratio of the applied load and spherical area of the indentation i.e.

=22 dDD)2/d(

PBHN

(5)

where P is the load, D is the ball diameter, d is the indent diameter. The Vickers test gives a similar hardness value (VHN) as given by

2LP854.1VHN = (6)

where L is the diagonal length of the indent. Some typical values of hardness of some metals are presented in Table.7.

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Table 7 Hardness values of some metals Metal Brinell Hardness Number

(BHN) Vickers Hardness Number

(VHN) Copper (annealed) 49 53 Brass (annealed) 65 70 Steel 150-190 157-190

5.3 Effect of temperature on ductility and notch toughness At lower temperatures below 00C, the yield strength of steel is only marginally affected, while there is substantial reduction in ductility and toughness. The ultimate behaviour of steel progressively changes from ductile to brittle, reaching a lowest value of toughness at a threshold temperature called Ductile-to-Brittle-Transition-Temperature (DBTT) range. The transition temperature for structural steel is generally well below the room temperature. However, if it is near to the ambient temperature, due to the loss of ductility, engineering components may fail under service loading. This transition temperature is affected by metallurgical aspects such as grain size and also by the presence of notches. In certain instances, due to deviations in correct processing procedure when the DBTT of steel is above room temperature or the application temperature, serious failures have been observed in ships cruising through the Arctic sea, bridges in cold climates and cryogenic gas storage facilities. The charpy V notch test (also known as the notch-toughness test) is used to determine the DBTT. In this test, a falling pendulum hammer fitted with a striking edge as shown in Fig.19 breaks a standard notched specimen (Fig.20). In principle, the energy absorbed by the specimen during its failure translates into a loss of potential energy of the pendulum. Thus, a rough measure of this absorbed energy can be calculated from the difference between initial height (h1) of the pendulum when released and the maximum height (h2) it reaches on the far side after breaking the specimen. The variation of absorbed energy with respect to temperature is shown in Fig.21. Generally, structural engineering standards and codes [IS: 1757 (1988)] will allow the use of only those steels that exhibit a minimum energy absorption capability at a pre-determined temperature say 20 N-m at 23 5 oC. 5.4 Strain rate effect on yield strengths of steel Strain rate is another factor that affects the strength of steel. Typically, the tensile and yield strength increases at higher strain rates as shown in Fig.22 except that at higher temperatures the reverse is true. It may also be noted that increase in strain rate causes reduction in ductility. Consideration of this phenomenon is crucial for blast resistant design of steel structures in which very high strain rates are expected but of little practical significance in earthquake engineering applications wherein the strain rate is well within the range where fy does not change very much.

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ch2

h1

Fig. 19 Experimental set up for notch toughness test Fig. 20 Test specimen for notch toughness test

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Region of Cleavage(brittle)

failure

Region of Shear (Ductile) failure

Transition Temperature

Ductile to brittle transition curve

Temperature Strain rate

Ene

rgy

abso

rbed

Fig.21 Effect of temperature on notch toughness of steel


33.0.

4y

y 45.0973.0)10x2@(f

f+=

1.2

1.1

1.0

10-5 10-2 10-110-4 10-3 Strain rate in seconds-1

)410x2@(yf

yf

Fig.22 Strain rate effects on the yield strength of steel

Table 8 Mechanical properties of some typical structural steels

Yield strength (MPa) Thickness (mm)

Type of steel Design-ation

UTS (MPa)

40

Elongation Gauge

065.5 S

Charpy V -notch values Joules (min)

Fe 410A 410 250 240 230 23 27

Fe 410B 410 250 240 230 23 27

Standard structural steel

Fe 410C 410 250 240 230 23 27


6.0 THE MANUFACTURING PROCESS OF STRUCTURAL STEEL For design of structures, the structural engineer uses long and flat products. The long products include: angles; channels; joists/beams; bars and rods; cold twisted deformed (CTD) bars; thermo-mechanically treated (TMT) ribbed bars, while the flat products comprise: plates; hot rolled coils (HRC) or cold rolled coils (CRC)/sheets in as annealed or galvanised condition. The starting material for the finished products is as given below:

Blooms in case of larger diameter/cross-section long products Billets in case of smaller diameter/cross-section long products Slabs for hot rolled coils/sheets Hot rolled coils in case of cold rolled coils/sheets Hot/Cold rolled coils/sheets for cold formed sections

6.1 Electric Arc or Induction Furnace Route for Steel Making in Mini or Midi Steel

Plants The production process depends upon whether the input material to the steel plant is steel scrap or the basic raw material i.e. iron ore. In case of former, the liquid steel is produced in Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) or Induction Furnace (IF) and cast into ingots or continuously cast into blooms/billets/slabs for further rolling into desired product. The steel mills employing this process route are generally called as mini or midi steel plants. Since liquid steel after melting contains impurities like sulphur and phosphorus beyond desirable limits and no refining is generally possible in induction furnace. The structural steel produced through this process is inferior in quality. Through refining in EAF, any desired quality (i.e. low levels of sulphur and phosphorus and of inclusion content) can be produced depending upon the intended application. Quality can be further improved by secondary refining in the ladle furnace, vacuum degassing unit or vacuum arc degassing (VAD) unit. 6.2 Iron Making and Basic Oxygen Steel Making in Integrated Steel Plants When the starting input material is iron ore, then the steel plant is generally called the integrated steel plant. In this case, firstly hot metal or liquid pig iron is produced in a vertical shaft furnace called the blast furnace (BF). Iron ore, coke (produced by carbonisation of coking coal) and limestone [Fig. 23(a)] in calculated proportion are charged at the top of the blast furnace. Coke serves two purposes in the BF(Fig.23(b)). Firstly it provides heat energy on combustion and secondly carbon for reduction of iron ore into iron. Limestone on decomposition at higher temperature provides lime, which combines with silica present in the iron ore to form slag. It also combines with sulphur in the coke and reduces its content in the liquid pig iron or hot metal collected at the bottom of the BF. The hot metal contains very high level of carbon content around 4%; silicon in the range of 0.5-1.2%; manganese around 0.5%; phosphorus in the range 0.03-0.12%; and somewhat higher level of sulphur around 0.05%. Iron with this kind of composition is

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highly brittle and cannot be used for any practical purposes. Hot metal is charged in to steel making vessel called LD converter or the Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF). Open- (a)

(h)

(g)

(f)

(e)

(d)

(c)

(b)

Fig.23 Schematic diagram of manufacturing of structural steelsections from Iron ore(Source: Adams P.F., Krentz H.A. and KulakG.L., Limit state design in structural steel SI Units, CanadianInstitute of Steel Construction (1979).)

hearth process is also used in some plants, though it is gradually being phased out [Fig.23(c)]. Oxygen is blown into the liquid metal in a controlled manner, which reduces the carbon content and oxidises the impurities like silicon, manganese, and phosphorus. Lime is charged to slag off the oxidised impurities. Ferro Manganese (FeMn), Ferro Silicon (FeSi) and/or Aluminium (Al) are added in calculated amount to deoxidise the liquid steel, since oxygen present in steel will appear as oxide inclusions in the solid state, which are very harmful. Ferro alloy addition also helps to achieve the desired composition. Generally the structural steel contains: carbon in the range 0.10-0.25%; manganese in the range 0.4-1.2%; sulphur 0.025-0.050%; phosphorus 0.025-0.050% depending upon specification and end use. Some micro alloying elements can also be added to increase the strength level without affecting its weldability and impact toughness.

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If the oxygen content is brought down to less than 30 parts per million (PPM), the steel is called fully killed, whereas if the oxygen content is around 150 PPM, then the steel is called semi-killed. During continuous casting, only killed steel is used. However, both semi-killed and killed steels are cast in the form of ingots. The present trend is to go in for casting of steel through continuous casting, as it improves the quality, yield as well as the productivity. 6.3 Casting and Primary/Finish Rolling Liquid steel is cast into ingots [Fig.(23(d)], which after soaking at 1280-13000 C in the soaking pits [(Fig.23(e)] are rolled in the blooming and billet mill into blooms/billets [(Fig.23(f)] or in slabbing mill into slabs. The basic shapes such as ingots, cast slabs, bloom and billets are shown in Fig.24. The blooms are further heated in the reheating furnaces at 1250-12800 C and rolled into billets or to large structurals[(Fig.23(h)]. The slabs after heating to similar temperature are rolled into plates in the plate mill. Even though the chemical composition of steel dictates the mechanical properties, its final mechanical properties are strongly influenced by rolling practice, finishing temperature, and cooling rate and subsequent heat treatment. The slabs or blooms or the billets can directly be continuously cast from the liquid state and thereafter are subjected to further rolling after heating in the reheating furnaces. .

Ingot slab bloom Billet Fig. 24 Basic shapes and their relative proportions

Fig.25 Primary rolls for plates

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In the hot rolling operation the material passes through two rolls where the gap between rolls is lower than the thickness of the input material. The material would be repeatedly passed back and forth through the same rolls several times by reducing the gap between them during each pass. Plain rolls (Fig.25) are used for flat products such as plate, strip and sheet, while grooved rolls (Fig. 26) are used in the production of structural sections, rails, rounded and special shapes. The rolling process, in addition to shaping the steel into the required size, improves the mechanical properties by refining the grain size of the material. Final rolling of structurals, bars/rods and HRC/CRC or sheet product is done in respective mills. In case of cold rolled sheets/coils, the material is annealed and skin passed to provide it the necessary ductility and surface finish

Molten steel

Fig.26 Primary rolls for structural shapes

6.4 Steel Products The long products are normally used in the as-hot-rolled condition. Plates are used in hot rolled condition as well as in the normalised condition to improve their mechanical properties particularly the ductility and the impact toughness. The structural sections produced in India include beams (classified as, light, junior, medium and heavy defined as ISLB, ISJB, ISMB and ISHB respectively) angles (equal, unequal), channel, tees etc. Channel sections are designated as ISLC, ISMC etc. and angles are designated as ISA. Usually the member is designated along with its depth. For example ISMB 300 (300 mm depth), ISMC 250 (250 mm depth), ISA(60 x 60 x 6) (1st leg breadth x 2nd leg breadth x thickness) etc. Sheet products after cold rolling has high strength but very poor ductility. This product needs to be annealed at 650-6800C in the hood annealing furnaces to improve its ductility.

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Cold forming is done by passing the hot or cold rolled and annealed product through a series of cold forming rolls. Now-a-days hollow sections are also becoming very popular. Hollow sections i.e. round, square or rectangular are produced either by seamless rolling process or by fusion welding or electric resistance welding after cold forming of HRC/CRC into the desired shape. 7.0 COLD ROLLING AND COLD FORMING Cold rolling, as the term implies involves reducing the thickness of unheated material into thin sheets by applying rolling pressure at ambient temperature. The common cold rolled products are coils and sheets. Cold rolling results in smoother surface and improved mechanical properties. Cold rolled sheets could be made as thin as 0.3 mm. Cold forming is a process by which the sheets (hot rolled / cold rolled) are folded in to desired section profile by a series of forming rolls in a continuous train of roller sets. Such thin shapes are impossible to be produced by hot rolling. The main advantage of cold-formed sheets in structural application is that any desired shape can be produced. In other words it can be tailor-made into a particular section for a desired member performance. These cold formed sheet steels are basically low carbon steels (


In brief, different aspects of steel as are important to a structural engineer, have been described. 10. REFERENCES 1. Graham W. Owens and Peter R. Knowles, Steel designers manual, ELBS Fifth

Edition (1994). 2. Adams P.F., Krentz H.A. and Kulak G.L., Limit state design in structural steel SI

Units, Canadian Institute of Steel Construction (1979). 3. IS:2062 Steel for general structural purposes Specification, Fourth Revision (1992). 4. IS:961 Specification for structural steel (High Tensile) , (1962). 5. Robert E. Reed Hill , Physical metallurgy principles, Second Ed., EWP, New Delhi,

(1985). 6. IS:1608 Method of tensile testing of steel products (Second Revision) (1995). 7. IS:1757 Method for charpy impact test (V-notch) on metallic material (1988) 8. IS: 8500, Structural steel - Micro alloyed (medium and high strength qualities) -

Specification, First Revision (1991).

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CORROSION, FIRE PROTECTION AND FATIGUE CONSIDERATIONS OF STEEL STRUCTURES

2 CORROSION, FIRE PROTECTION AND FATIGUE CONSIDERATIONS OF STEEL STRUCTURES

1.0 INTRODUCTION Corrosion, fire protection and fatigue failure of steel structures are some of the main concerns of an engineer involved in the design and construction of structural steel work and these aspects do warrant extra attention. A review of international literature and the state of the art in constructional steelwork would reassure the designer that many aspects of corrosion, fire and fatigue behaviour of structural steel work, are no longer the major issues. For example, the steel construction industry has developed excellent protective coatings that would retain service life even after 20 years without any serious attention! Similarly the emergence of fire engineering of steel structures as a specialised discipline has addressed many of the concerns regarding the structural steel work under fire. In India Fire Resistant Steels (FRS) are available which are quite effective in steelwork subjected to elevated temperatures. They are also cost effective compared to mild steel! Similarly, fatigue behaviour of steel structural systems has been researched extensively in the past few decades and has been covered excellently in the published literature. Many countries have a separate code of practice, which deals exclusively with the fatigue resistance design of steel structural systems. Today, substantial information and guidelines are available to the designers so that these three aspects could be handled in a routine manner. In this chapter we will review aspects of corrosion, fire protection and fatigue behaviour of structural steelwork briefly and outline suitable prevention methods. 2.0 CORROSION OF STEEL There is a mindset among many Indian designers, that steel corrodes the most in India compared to other countries. This conception is very much untrue! No doubt, steel corrodes all over the world but the difference is, the problem is better tackled in the advanced countries. With the advent of new technologies of corrosion protection and better understanding of the material behaviour of steel, corrosion of steel no longer causes any undue worry for structural designers involved in structural steelwork. Nevertheless, a designer involved in structural steel work must be aware of the phenomena of corrosion and its prevention methods, both simple and detailed. 2.1 Corrosion mechanism as a miniature battery Every metal found in nature has a characteristic electric potential, based on its atomic structure and also the ease with which the metal can produce or absorb electrons. Those metals, which provide electrons more readily, are called anodes and those that absorb electrons are called cathodes. Anodes and cathodes are called electrodes and if they get connected in the presence of an electrolyte (a conducting medium), they form a battery as shown in Fig.1. Copyright reserved

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No material individually can be called as cathode or anode, as they can serve both the functions depending on the relative potential of the material to which they are connected. For example, steel is anodic in the presence of stainless steel or brass and cathodic in the presence of zinc or aluminium. From the mechanism shown in Fig. 1, we see that two bodies of different electric potential electrically connected together in the presence of an electrolyte, the anodic body provide electrons to the cathode (To remember easily: AnodesAway; Cathodes-Collect). In this process the anode is gradually destroyed, in other words it corrodes. On the other hand, a body will not corrode until it is immersed in or wetted by an electrolytic solution and gets electrically connected to another body having a more positive electric potential. This is the main principle called eliminate the electrolyte, using which we device many of the corrosion prevention methods, in structural steel work.

Fig.1 Mechanism of corrosion as a miniature battery

A

Metal Connection

C

Electrolyte

2.2 Corrosion of steel In the case of steel, when favourable condition for corrosion occurs, the ferrous ions go into solution from anodic areas. Electrons are then released from the anode and move through the cathode where they combine with water and oxygen to form hydroxyl ions. These react with the ferrous ions from anode to produce hydrated ferrous oxide, which further gets oxidised into ferric oxide, which is known as the red rust. Let us consider a portion of steel member, which is slightly rusted as shown in Fig. 2. The portion of the surface protected by the oxide film (rust) would be cathodic with respect to a portion, which is not so protected. Therefore, there will be a difference in electrical potential and hence the anode will corrode, forming rust on its surface. As rust builds up on one portion of the body, it becomes less anodic with respect to a previously rusted area. In this way they form and reform batteries and corrode the entire surface.

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C

Drop of water Anode

Metal bar

Cathode

Fig. 2 Mechanism of Corrosion in steel From the above discussion, it is clear, that the main interest of the structural designers is to prevent the formation of these corrosion batteries. For example, if we can wipe out the drop of water shown in Fig. 2, the corrosion will not takes place! Hence using the eliminate the electrolyte principle, wherever possible we need to device detailing and protection to surfaces of structural steel work to ensure that the combination of oxygen and water are avoided and hence the corrosion batteries are avoided. 2.3 Types of corrosion encountered in practice Let us briefly review the types of corrosion encountered in structural steel elements: Pitting corrosion: As shown in Fig. 2, The anodic areas form a corrosion pit. This can occur with mild steel immersed in water or soil. This common type of corrosion is essentially due to the presence of moisture aided by improper detailing or constant exposure to alternate wetting and drying. This form of corrosion could easily be tackled by encouraging rapid drainage by proper detailing and allowing free flow of air, which would dry out the surface. Crevice corrosion: This again is due to improper detailing where the tops of the crevices become localised anodes and corrosion occurs at this point. The principle of crevice corrosion is exemplified in Fig. 3. The oxygen content of water trapped in a crevice is less than that of water, which is exposed to air. Because of this the crevice becomes anodic with respect to surrounding metal and hence the corrosion starts inside the crevice. Bimetallic corrosion: When two dissimilar metals (for e.g. Iron and Aluminium) are joined together in an electrolyte, an electrical current passes between them and the corrosion occurs. This is because, metals in general could be arranged, depending on their electric potential, into a table called the galvanic series. The farther the metals in the galvanic series, the greater the potential differences between them causing the anodic metal to corrode. A common example is the use of steel screws in stainless steel members and also using steel bolts in aluminium members. This type of bi-metallic corrosion is easy to spot and understand. Obviously such a contact between dissimilar metals should be avoided in detailing.

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C

A

Fig.3 Mechanism of crevice corrosion

Drop Of Water Stress corrosion: This occurs under the simultaneous influence of a static tensile stress and a specific corrosive environment. Stress makes some spots in a body more anodic (especially the stress concentrated zones) compared with the rest as shown in Fig. 4. The crack tip in Fig. 4 is the anodic part and it corrodes to make the crack wider. This corrosion is not common with ferrous metals though some stainless steels are susceptible to this. Fretting corrosion: If two oxide coated films or rusted surfaces are rubbed together, the oxide film can be mechanically removed from high spots between the contacting surfaces as shown in Fig. 5.

C

A

F

F

Fig. 4 Mechanism of stress corrosion These exposed points become active anodes compared with the rest of the surfaces and initiate corrosion. This type corrosion is common in mechanical components. Bacterial corrosion: This can occur in soils and water as a result of microbiological activity. Bacterial corrosion is most common in pipelines, buried structures and offshore structures.

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