Hardened Case Properties and Tensile Behaviours of TMT Steel Bars

Abstract

Nowadays, high strength steels are getting very popular all over the world for various applications such as in auto body making, machine parts manufacturing, steel structure buildings, concrete reinforcement, etc. In Bangladesh, use of high strength TMT steels bars has got a momentum in the construction of flyovers, bridges and high rise buildings because of its good combination of the required mechanical properties. In this research work, locally produced high strength TMT reinforcing steel bars (20 mm dia.) of two different companies have been investigated. As a part of this research work, at first, details microstructural morphologies of hardened case, transition zone and core of both steels were investigated by optical microscope and they were then photographed. After that, Rockwell hardness was measured on different zones. Tensile tests were also carried by a Universal Testing Machine at room temperature. After tensile tests, details of the fracture modes of the steel bars were studied carefully. The fracture modes were then discussed in terms of chemical compositions and carbon equivalents, resulted microstructures, case and core hardness, depths of hardened case and transition zone of the steel bars.