Blog 2 - Tests & Properties of Steel

Minerals, ore, rock, metals, and alloys… Seems all connected but, how are they? Here's a small illustration. 

   


   

The most amazing thing about steel is its ability to alloy with other metals, like Aluminium, Copper, Molybdenum, Chromium, Tungsten, Manganese, Nickel, etc.

The two methods of manufacturing of steel,

  1. Basic Oxygen Process (blowing oxygen into a molten pig)
  2. Electric Arc Furnace process (separating slag from steel by melting it under the heat of carbon electrodes)

Here comes my favourite part of the session. We discussed the terms like Tension, Compression, Elasticity, Plasticity, Brittle, Ductility, Hardness, Deformation, Fracture, and Necking. It was important to revise these terms that define the properties of any material. 


The three tests to determine the hardness of a material are

  1. Rockwell hardness test

Measuring the depth of puncture created by the forcing a pinhead on the surface of the material

  1. Brinell hardness test
  2. Vicker's hardness test

And the process involved in the other two were left to us to find out!

At the end of the class, we all were asked our opinions on how good or bad, sustainable steel as a building material is. Easy to handle, transport, assemble and inspect, resistance to design loads, long life, are some of the pros of steel. And not to forget the cons: expensive, maintenance, its fluctuating strength during temperature variations, a high embodied energy…


Am I laying out the facts? Well, we had to get our facts checked! Criticizing something isn’t as easy as praising the same. 

And here goes our next assignment, to write a blog on the question “Is steel a sustainable material?”.

- Janani Venkateswaran

No. of words - 310 (including the image)

Location: India

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