ANNEALING HEAT TREATMENT OF AISI 1020

STEEL AND ITS EFFECT ON MCROSTRUCTURE

AND PROPERTIES

ABSTRACT:

This study reports the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of 0.2%
low carbon steel at 870oC . Annealing treatment is done for the experimental work. Hardness tests,
fatigue tests, compression tests and metallography were carried out on the heat-treated and control
sample. The results obtained showed significant differences in the microstructure and mechanical
properties of the annealed heat-treated sample. The hardness profile determined using a Rockwell steel
ball indenter showed decrease in hardness of the heat-treated samples when compared with the
control.. A higher compressive strength of 151.52MPa was obtained with annealing heat treatment.
Improved fatigue strength was also obtained with annealing heat treatment.

1.0. INTRODUCTION:

Low carbon steel is the most common form of steel due to the fact that its material properties are
acceptable for many applications. Low carbon steel also called mild steel have 0.2% carbon content, and
manganese content below 0.7%, with maximum value for silicon, at 0.6%. Low carbon steels are utilised
to produce cars body panels, tubes, domestic appliance side panels and other engineering applications
because they are readily available, workable and weldable.

Annealing, is a heat treatment that alters the physical and sometimes chemical properties of a material
to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness, making it more workable. It involves heating a material
to above its recrystallization temperature, maintaining a suitable temperature, and then cooling.
In annealing, atoms migrate in the crystal lattice and the number of dislocations decreases, leading to
the change in ductility and hardness. The performance of low carbon steel in service depends on
intrinsic factors which include its grain size, presence of defects, its chemical composition, ultimate
tensile strength, etc. as well as extrinsic factors. Furthermore, the mechanical properties of low carbon
steel such as strength, formability, ductility, fatigue strength and surface hardness, amongst others
enhances its performance in service. Studies have also shown that failure of carbon steels can result
from poor design, use of inferior material, fabrication methods, manufacturing errors as a result of poor
machining, or failure from a phenomenon called fatigue. In order to forestall these failures, the
mechanical properties can be changed as desired by heat treatment which fundamentally alters the
microstructure of the steel. Heat treatment was defined by Singh as a controlled process of heating and
cooling a metal or alloy in its solid state to change its metallurgical and mechanical properties.

Annealing causes softening of the steel followed by a resulting increase in ductility and relief of residual
stresses. It is of necessity to note that all the different heat treatment processes consists of three stages:
heating of the material, holding the temperature for a stipulated period and cooling, usually to room
temperature. Therefore, in this present work, a limited experimental result are obtained for
investigation of the mechanical properties of the heat treated low carbon steel is presented.

2.0. LITERATURE REVEW:

2.1 . In this present work, a limited experimental result are obtained for investigation of the mechanical
properties of the heat treated low carbon steel is presented.

2.2 . This study reports the effect of heat treatment on the microstructure and mechanical properties of
0.2% low carbon steel at 870oC . Annealing treatment is done for the experimental work. Hardness tests,
fatigue tests, compression tests and metallography were carried out.

2.3 . 6 inch low carbon steel sample is used which was further cut into 1 inch sample for the annealing
treatment.

2.4 . Annealing, is a heat treatment that alters the physical and sometimes chemical properties of a
material to increase its ductility and reduce its hardness, making it more workable. It involves heating a
material to above its recrystallization temperature, maintaining a suitable temperature, and then
cooling.
In annealing, atoms migrate in the crystal lattice and the number of dislocations decreases, leading to
the change in ductility and hardness.

2.5 . The heat treatment was carried out in heat treatment furnace of temp 1200 oC. Metallography is
the study of the microstructure of all types of metallic alloys. It can be more precisely defined as the
scientific discipline of observing and determining the chemical and atomic structure and spatial
distribution of the constituents, inclusions or phases in metallic alloys. By extension, these same
principles can be applied to the characterization of any material. Different techniques are used to reveal
the microstructural features of metals.

2.6 . The method involves an actual count of the number of grains within a known area. The number of
grains per unit area, NA , is used to determine the ASTM grain size number, G. The precision of the
method is a function of the number of grains counted. A precision of 0.25 grain size units can be
attained with a reasonable amount of effort. Results are free of bias and repeatability and
reproducibility are less than 0.5 grain size units. An accurate count does require marking off of the
grains as they are counted.

2.7 . Place the lowest objective (or magnification) into place so you see the lowest magnification when
looking through the lens of the microscope. Rotate the ocular micrometer (which will generally be
labeled) until it is superimposed onto the stage micrometer (which should also be labeled). The forward
edge of both scales should be approximately even. Look for a point as far away from the origin of the
scales as possible where the scales overlap (that is, two ticks on the scale are located on top of one
another).Count the spaces on each scale from the beginning of each scale to where they overlap again.
The spaces on the ocular micrometer are called ocular units and the spaces on the stage micrometer are
called stage units. Divide the number of stage units by the number of ocular units. For example, if you
count 21 stage units and 29 ocular units, dividing these numbers gives 0.724. Call this ratio result A.
Multiply result A by 10. This gives the length in units of micrometers completing the conversion
between ocular units and micrometers. Continuing the example above, this gives 7.24 micrometers.
3.0. EXPERIMENTAL WORK:

3.1 .Chemical composition of steel sample:

Element C Si S P Mn Ni Cr Mo Cu W Sn Co Fe

Composition % 0.26 0.08 0.07 0.11 0.34 0.17 0.09 0.03 0.64 0.04 0.21 0.01 97.95

3.2 . Sample was cut into 6 pieces of dimension 1inch each for evaluating the hardness and
microstructure before and after annealing heat treatment.

ROCKWELL HARDNESS TEST:

Rockwell hardness testing is a general method for measuring the bulk hardness of metallic and
polymer materials. Although hardness testing does not give a direct measurement of any
performance properties, hardness of a material co-relates directly with its strength, wear
resist-acne, and other properties.
Procedure:

To test the hardness first we place the sample on the disc then applied minor load .A major load
is then applied then the load is released back The Rockwell hardness number is calculated from
the depth of perm-anent deformation of the indenter into the sample. The indenter position is
measured using an analog dial indicator.

3.3 .ANNEALING HEAT TREATMENT:

Annealing of AISI 1020 steel is carried out at 870oC in heat treatment furnace and then it was hold for
about 1 hour and then furnace cool the microstructures and hardness was evaluated before and after
heat treatment. The heat treatment cycle was found to be:

4.0. RESULT:

MICROSTRUCTURES:

BEFORE HEAT TREATMENT (ANNEALING):

200x and 400x respectively fig,1 and fig.2.

AFTER HEAT TREATMENT:
The microstructure of the as-received sample showed ferrite in the grain boundaries of the acicular
pearlite grains. For this reason, the microstructure of the steel can be described as having a ferrite-
austenite duplex phase. Subjecting the steel to annealing heat treatment at 850oC affected the spatial
distribution of ferrite at the grain boundaries, and scales were observed to be present in ferrite

HARDNESS:

BEFORE HEAT TREATMENT:

The results are as follows;

HARDNESS SCALE LOAD

18 B 100

AFTER HEAT TREATMENT:

The hardness of annealed steel decrease due to removal of residual stresses and annealing softens the
steel and increase the machinability of steel

HARDNESS SCALE LOAD

13 B 100
Effect of heat treatment type on the compressive strength of 0.26% carbon steel

The compressive strength of 0.2% carbon steel increased with annealing heat treatments at 870 oC. This
was calculated using the values of hardness was observed when compared with the behaviour of the as-
received samples signifying that annealing of 0.2% carbon steel at the stated temperature improves its
compressive strength.

5.0. CONCLUSION:
In this work, the differences between un heat treated and heat-treated test conditions were evaluated.
From the results, it can be concluded that the compressive strength of 0.2% carbon steel increased with
annealing heat treatments at 870oC while improved strength was obtained with annealing heat
treatment. Furthermore, a microstructure of better quality was obtained with heat treatment. The
hardness of the steel was decreased by annealing treatment.

6.0. REFERENCES:
Abe, Y., Braem, M.J.A., Lambrechts, P., Inoue, S., Takeuchi, M. & Van Meerbeek, B. (2005),
Fatigue behavior of packable composites, Biomaterials 26 (17), 3405-3409.
Ajayi, J. A., Joseph, O.O., Oloruntoba, D.T. & Joseph, O.O. (2013), Experimental Failure
Investigation of an Aircraft Nose Landing Gear, International Journal of Metallurgical and
Materials Engineering 3 (1), 85-92.
Al-Qawabah, S.M.A., Nabeel, A., & Al-Qawabeha, U.F. (2012), Effect of Annealing Temperature
on the Microstructure, Microhardness, Mechanical Behavior and Impact Toughness of Low
Carbon Steel, Grade 45, International Journal of Engineering Research and Applications 2 (3),
1550-1553. Dossett, J.L. & Boyer, H.E., (2006), Practical Heat Treating, 3rd Ed., Allied
Publishers Private Limited, India.
Fish, P.M. (1995), The International Steel Trade, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Cambridge,
UK.
O.O. Joseph1*, F.I. Alo2 . Department of Mechanical Engineering, Covenant University, Ota,
Nigeria , Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Obafemi Awolowo University,
Ile-Ife, Nigeria