Metals and Alloys Metal is an element, compound, or alloy that is a good conductor of both electricity and heat.

In terms of volume or weight, metals and alloys as construction materials are well behind concrete. However, their strength, ductility, toughness, surface properties, weldability, electrical and thermal conductivity, and many other properties unique to this group of materials, make metals and alloys indispensible materials for construction. These materials are used in houses and other buildings, structural steelwork including buildings, bridges, offshore structures and piling, road structures, and does not require the extensive machinery necessary for completing any major construction project, for example cranes, trucks and concrete mixers. Due to their high strength, metals can bear high loads with less material or be used to reinforce other materials. Due to their high stiffness, metals can span greater distances, allowing more design freedom. Metal building products, with appropriate surface treatment when necessary, are weatherproof, seismic proof, corrosion resistant and immune to the harmful effects of UV rays, ensuring a very long service life without degradation. Ease of fabrication and erection. Metals can be re-used or recycled. Strength/weight ratio

Ferrous Metals A variety of metals are used. The predominant type is, of course, the ferrous metals, i.e. iron and steel. Within this type, there are cast iron, wrought iron, carbon steels and alloy steels, differentiated mainly by their composition. Among them, carbon steels form the basis of structural steelwork as well as concrete reinforcing bars, and thus are used in the largest quantity among all types of metals. Steel is categorized based on: a) the amount of carbon content and b) the addition of further metallic and non-metallic alloying elements and various heat treatments which modify the mechanical properties and crystal structures.

Steel Steel is made of iron and carbon, with the presence of other elements (manganese, silicon, phosphorus, sulfur, and oxygen) depending on the type of steel. The carbon content impacts the specific characteristics of a given grade of steel (Table 1). The production of steel is a multi-stage process, involving the production of impure iron in a blastfurnace, followed by its conversion into steel by either the basic oxygen or electric arc process. Molten steel is then cast and subsequently hot-rolled. Thin sections may then be cold-rolled and coated as required.

Alloys Metals are rarely used in their pure elemental form, but are combined into mixtures of elements known as alloys. Alloying is the deliberate addition of extra elements to a pure metal to improve some aspect of its properties. Alloying can produce large improvements in properties. For example, steels and aluminium alloys can have strength levels that are over an order of magnitude greater than the base metal (iron and aluminium respectively) in pure form. The engineering properties of metals, such as strength, toughness and corrosion resistance, are controlled by the structure of the metal on the nano- (10 -9 m) and micro(10-6 m) structural scale. Cast iron Cast iron is an alloy of iron with a carbon content within the range 24% and typically 1 3% silicon. The low melting point (approximately 1150 0C) and the high fluidity when molten give rise to its excellent casting properties, but it cannot be hot worked, and it is generally a brittle material. Different grades of cast iron are associated with distinct microscopic crystal structures. Wrought iron New wrought iron is either recycled or, more frequently, low carbon steel. Traditional wrought iron contains approximately 0.02% carbon. Wrought iron has a melting point of around 15400C depending upon its purity. It is ductile and easily forged when hot (1350 14500C) and has a greater resistance to corrosion than low carbon steel. Use of Structural Steel in construction Characteristics - Structural steel differs from concrete in its attributed compressive strength as well as tensile strength. 2

 Strength - Having high strength, stiffness, toughness, and ductile properties, structural steel is one of the most commonly used materials in commercial and industrial building construction. Constructability - Structural steel can be developed into nearly any shape, which are either bolted or welded together in construction. Structural steel can be erected as soon as the materials are delivered on site, whereas concrete must be cured at least 1-2 weeks after pouring before construction can continue, making steel a schedulefriendly construction material. Fire Resistance - Steel is inherently a noncombustible material. However, when heated to temperatures seen in a fire scenario, the strength and stiffness of the material is significantly reduced. Corrosion - Steel, when in contact with water, can corrode, creating a potentially dangerous structure. Measures must be taken in structural steel construction to prevent any lifetime corrosion. The steel can be painted, providing water resistance. Structural steel has low strength to weight ratio. Concrete has a much higher strength to weight ratio. This is not due to a larger density; steel is much denser in comparison to concrete. Fire resistance: Steel loses strength when heated sufficiently. The critical temperature of a steel member is the temperature at which it cannot safely support its load. The critical temperature is often considered the temperature at which its yield stress has been reduced to 60% of the room temperature yield stress. Failure of Metals under Fatigue or Creep Fatigue fatigue is the progressive and localized structural damage that occurs when a material is subjected to cyclic loading. Fatigue occurs when a material is subject to a fluctuating stress ( repeated loading and unloading), and can lead to failure after a period of time even if the maximum stress level experienced is considerably below the stress required for global plastic deformation (i.e. the yield stress). Fatigue is caused by the initiation and growth of a crack at a point of high stress concentration, which may be due to a design feature (e.g. a sharp corner) or a microstructural feature (e.g. large, hard particle). Eventually a crack will reach a critical size, and the structure will suddenly fracture. Microstructure will influence both the initiation and propagation of fatigue cracks in alloys. Local defects in the microstructure such as voids or particles (e.g. inclusion particles formed by impurity elements) can act as stress concentrators and sites of crack initiation. The shape of the structure will significantly affect the fatigue life; square holes or sharp corners will lead to elevated local stresses where fatigue cracks can initiate. Round holes and smooth transitions or fillets are therefore important to increase the fatigue strength of the structure. Creep Creep is the tendency of a solid material to move slowly or deform permanently under the influence of stresses. Creep describes the process by which alloys deform permanently when subject to a stress below the yield stress when held at elevated temperature. It occurs as a result of long term exposure to high levels of stress that are below the yield strength of the material. Creep always increases with temperature and in metals only becomes significant at temperatures greater than about 0.4Tm, where Tm is the absolute melting temperature (K). It follows that metals with lower melting points (e.g. aluminium Tm = 933 K, lead Tm = 600 K) are more susceptible to creep than higher melting point metals (e.g. nickel Tm = 1728 K, titanium Tm = 1941 K). Unlike brittle fracture, creep deformation does not occur suddenly upon the application of stress. 3

Instead, strain accumulates as a result of long-term stress. Creep is a "time-dependent" deformation. Corrosion Corrosion is an electrochemical process, which can only occur in the presence of an electrolyte and oxygen. The overall effect is summarised by the chemical equation:

Corrosion prevention techniques Cathodic protection Cathodic protection (CP) is a technique used to control the corrosion of a metal surface by making it the cathode of an electrochemical cell. The simplest method to apply CP is by connecting the metal to be protected with a piece of another more easily corroded "sacrificial metal" to act as the anode of the electrochemical cell. The sacrificial metal then corrodes instead of the protected metal. Common applications are;steel water or fuel pipelines and storage tanks such as home water heaters, steel pier piles; ship and boat hulls; offshore oil platforms and onshore oil well casings and metal reinforcement bars in concrete buildings and structures. Another common application is in galvanized steel, in which a sacrificial coating of zinc on steel parts protects them from rust.

Coatings Coating systems are required on exposed steelwork to form a barrier between the steel and its environment to prevent corrosion. This involves the preparation of the metal surface followed by the application of an appropriate metallic or non-metallic coating. Plating, painting, and the application of enamel are the most common anticorrosion treatments. They work by providing a barrier of corrosion-resistant material between the damaging environment and the structural material. Paints are usually applied as a three-coat system for maximum corrosion protection. Galvanization Galvanisation is the process of applying a protective zinc coating to steel or iron, in order to prevent rusting. The zinc serves as a sacrificial anode, so that it cathodically protects exposed steel. This means that even if the coating is scratched or abraded, the exposed steel will still be protected from corrosion by the remaining zinc - an advantage absent from paint,enamel, powder coating and other methods.