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Material Properties Of Steel Iron

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Material Properties of Steel
Steel is an alloy of iron, with carbon being the primary solute in the solid solution. It is a polycrystalline solid with grain diameter from 10 to 20 micro-meter (Ashby et al). The presence of impurity like carbon causes the crystal lattice distortions to increase, hence making giving steel better hardness, yield strength, and tensile strength, at the cost of ductility. Pure iron being very ductile but comparatively weak, steel is widely because of its greater load bearing capacity. Other impurities are also introduced into steel to produce different properties. Materials like chromium, vanadium, titanium, boron etc. are added to steel to give it better corrosion resistance, hardness, tensile strength and better fatigue response (Smith et al). Elements like carbon and nitrogen form take up interstitial spaces between the iron atoms owing to their reduced atomic size (Smith et al). Elements with larger atoms like nickel, chromium, aluminium, sulphur, phosphorus etc. act as substitutional elements (Smith et al). Although, the inclusion of various alloying elements do alter the material property and the crystalline structure, material property of basic steel can be understood by analyzing various phases of iron and carbon solid solution. Considering the structural differences in steel it can be differentiated into austentic, ferretic and martensitic.

As excessive presence of carbon in steel can render steel extremely brittle and hard, carbon

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