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3 steel

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LEARNING OUTCOME
At the end of this lecture, students should be
able to understand and explain;

i. Type of steel
ii. Properties of steel
iii. Manufacturing process of steel

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COURSE & programme OUTCOMEs

CO1: Apply the basic science and
engineering fundamentals to
properties of construction materials
and analyse their properties.
PO1: Ability to acquire and apply
basic knowledge of science,
mathematics and engineering
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INTRODUCTION
Steel is the general name given to a large family
of alloys of iron with carbon and a variety of
different elements.
Steel is a material that has wide applications in
civil engineering e.g. buildings, bridges, pipelines,
water tanks, roof trusses, etc.
In Malaysia, many structures have started to use
steel as the main material.
It also the strongest, the most resistant to ageing,
and generally the most reliable in quality.
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Steel is composed of about 98% of iron with the main

alloying elements of carbon, silicon and manganese.
The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined
in engineering and materials science as the stress at
which a material begins to plastically deform.
Prior to the yield point the material will deform
elastically and will return to its original shape when the
applied stress is removed.
Steel is completely industrialized material and subject to
its tight control of its content and the details of its
forming and fabrication. It has additional desirable
qualities of:
* Non-combustible
* Non-rotting
* Dimensionally stable with time & moisture change
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MAIN PROPERTIES OF STEEL :

1) Strong under compression and tension compared to concrete &
timber

2) Can resist excessive load due to wind, earthquake, vibration & impact
transfer load.

FACTORS IN SELECTING SPECIFIC APPLICATION OF STEEL :

1) Strength level required
2) Mechanical properties required together with strength

3) Steel making, heat treatment and other plant available

4) Arbitrary local conditions and code of practice
REFERENCES : BS 5950 & BS 4360 (The Structural Use of Steelwork
in Building)
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Construction Uses of Steel

Structural steel plates, bars, pipes, structural
shapes, etc.

Cold formed steel studs, trusts, roofing, cladding

Fastening products bolts, nuts, washers

Reinforcing steel rebar for concrete

Miscellaneous forms, pans, hardware, etc.

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STRUCTURAL STEEL CAN BE DIVIDED INTO 3 CATEGORIES :

1) Framed structures

Girder

consists of skeletal framework which carries all the load

The steel members are used to carry:
i) lateral loads when acting as beams and girders
ii) axial loads when acting as struts and ties
The steel frame are made of load bearing elements (e,g. tension
members, columns, beams under combined bending, girder, trusses
and axial load)
E.g. beam, girder (girder is a large support beam used in
construction , dome (dome is a common structural element of
architecture that resembles the hollow upper half of a sphere),
trusses

Dome
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Trusses
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STRUCTURAL STEEL CAN BE DIVIDED INTO 3 CATEGORIES :

2) Shell-Type structure

carries axial stress load

the shell serves a use function in addition to participation in
carrying loads.
The main stress in tension is the containment vessel
E.g. containment vessel used to store liquid, water tank &
storage bin.

Water tank

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STRUCTURAL STEEL CAN BE DIVIDED INTO 3 CATEGORIES :

3) Suspension-Type structure

Axial tension to support system

Major supporting element is tension cable
Since the tension element is the most efficient way of carrying
load, structures utilization this concept are coming into
increasing use.
E.g. cable, suspension bridge.

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TYPE OF STEEL
There is an almost infinite numbers of kinds of steel
available, since it possible to make steel to perform
under most known conditions.
The usage of steel:
Steel for strength
To resist impact
To resist corrosion/abrasion
Steel to take & hold a sharp edge
Steel to cut other steel
Steel is composed of about 98% of iron with the main
alloying elements of carbon, silicon and manganese.
All steels contain carbon and iron but the description carbon
steel is used where other elements are present in quantities
too small to affect the properties.
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TYPE OF STEEL (cont)

The design of steel structures is based primarily on the
yield stress or proof stress of the steel but ductility,
toughness at normal and weldability are often important
properties.
* The yield strength or yield point of a material is defined in
engineering and materials science as the stress at which a
material begins to plastically deform.
* Prior to the yield point the material will deform elastically
and will return to its original shape when the applied stress
is removed.
Weldability is important because welded structures give
weight saving and ease of fabrication compared to bolting
and riveting.
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TYPE OF STEEL (cont)

Steel is derived from 2 raw materials (liquid pig iron and scrap)

Pig iron is raw iron, the immediate product of smelting iron ore with coke
and limestone in a blast furnace.

Pig iron has a very high carbon content, typically 3.5%, which makes it
very brittle and not useful directly as a material except for limited
applications.

The iron making blast furnace produces liquid pig iron from the:

Iron

Ore

Limestone

Coke

Air

limestone

Iron ore

coke

The scrap used for new steelmaking arises in the steelwork itself (readily
characterized and usually recycled completely).
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TYPE OF STEEL
1) CARBON STEEL
a) Low carbon steel
Up to 0.15% Carbon
Soft
Suitable for wire and thin
sheet
b) Mild carbon steel
0.15 0.29% Carbon
Strong
Ductile
Suitable for rolling into
sections, sheet and strip
Easily worked and welded

c) Medium carbon steel

0.3 0.59% Carbon
For general
engineering purposes
d) High carbon steel
0.6 1.7% Carbon
Suitable for casting

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Carbon Steel
High Strength Low-Alloy
Steel

Alloy Steel
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Steel scrap

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Pig iron scrap

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2) ALLOY STEEL
contains either silicon or manganese or any
other element or elements with deliberate
alloying additions.
Alloying additions are made to steels to
enhance the properties.
3) WEATHERING STEEL
contains 0.2% copper
it has better resistance to corrosion than mild
steel
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4) STAINLESS STEEL

Contains chromium.
Classified as:
Martensitic (About 13% chromium)
Ferritic (About 17% chromium)
Austenitic (16 - 19% chromium together with 6 - 14%
nickel)

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PROPERTIES OF STEEL
MAIN PROPERTIES OF STEEL :
1)Strong under compression and
tension compared to concrete &
timber
2)Can resist excessive load due to
wind, earthquake, vibration & impact
transfer load.
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STEEL BEHAVIOUR:
Some of the properties of steel which makes it
versatile among construction materials are
high stiffness and tensile strength, the ability
to be formed into plate, sections and wire,
and the weldability or ease of welding for
constructional purposes.
Even small differences in the composition of
the steel can have a dramatic effect on its
properties.
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TENSILE TEST

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The properties of the steel can also be

modified by different mechanical and heat
treatments.
The material has high strength in tension and
compression and is able to undergo large
deformation without fracture. It is a ductile
material.

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STRESS-STRAIN DIAGRAM FOR STEEL

If a rod of steel is subjected to a tensile test, and the
stress (load /cross-sectional area in N/mm2) in the
rod is plotted against the strain (change in length /
original length), as the load is applied, a graph similar
to that shown would be obtained.
Note that the stress-strain curve is linear up to a
certain value, known as the yield point. This is the
elastic range. Beyond this point the steel yields
without an increase in load, although there is
significant strain hardening as the bar continues to
strain towards failure. This is the plastic range.
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STRESS-STRAIN DIAGRAM OF STEEL

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MANUFACTURING PROCESS
1) Primary Steel Making
Refers to the refining processes used to produce liquid
steel.
The aim is to produce a melt of the required composition.
Typical ranges required for structural steels are:
Carbon 0.15 -0.25%
Manganese 0.5 1.5%
Sulphur & Phosphorus < 0.05%
Types of refining process:
The Bessemer/Thomas process
The open-hearth (Siemens) process
The basic oxygen process
Electric arc steelmaking
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2) Secondary Steel Making

The liquid steel process is not finished when it is
tapped from the furnace.
It must undergo further treatment, i.e it is
necessary to deoxidize the metal.
This is done by adding manganese and silicon,
which react with dissolved oxygen to form
insoluble particles of oxide.
It may be necessary to adjust the carbon and
manganese contents to give the grade of steel
required, because with carbon it will improves
strength and manganese gives low temperature
toughness.
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3)Mechanical Forming Process

Are used to continuously cast materials into the shapes and
sizes required.
It can be done either by hot rolling or cold rolling.
i) Hot Rolling
All constructional steel are hot rolled.
These steel are heated to temperature of 1200 1300C to
make them soft enough to deform and shape.
ii) Cold Rolling
Cold rolling cannot be used to the same degree as hot
working for shaping purposes, because of the increased
strength of the cold work piece.
Modest reduction can be achieved by rolling to give better
size tolerances and surface qualities.
Mainly for light weight sections.
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Structural Steel
Cold formed
cladding

Hot rolled
structural
shapes

Mamlouk/Zaniewski, Materials for Civil and Construction Engineers, Third Edition. Copyright 2011 Pearson Education, Inc.

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(Q&A)

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