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Volume 1, Issue 3, Apr 2017
International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017
Study on Influence of heat treatment on
Tribological properties of mild steel
Mr. SriramMukunda1, AmanSuryan2, Hareesh Nair2, Sanjeev Kumar2, Siddharth
sanu2
1 Asst. Professor, Dept. Of Mechanical engineering, NitteMeenakshi institute of technology
2 BE students, Dept. of Mechanical engineering, NitteMeenakshi institute of technology
Abstract:A study was made on the effect of heat
treatment upon the mild steel. Total six samples were
prepared for each test (hardness test, tensile test,
microstructure test and wear test) from those two was
tested as received and rest four were subjected to
different heat treatment that are annealing and
normalizing (heated on a temperature of 850 degree
Celsius). The hardness of all sample was measured
by Rockwell hardness testing machine. Wear
measurement was done on pin-on disc wear machine.
Tensometer was used to find out the ultimate stress
and strain of the sample. The result of tensile test
showed that the strength is decreased by heat treating
and the surface hardness is also decreased by heat
treatment. Microstructure of the mild steel specimens
shows the grain boundary of the particles and the
content of % of carbon present. It justifies the
experimental results of tensile test and hardness test.
Surface Hardness is the measure of resistance that
any material applies. As the specimen gets soft on
treating the hardness also gets decreased. Tensile
strength of any specimen is specified as how much
stress the material can withstand before breaking. As
the metal gets soft after heat treatment the load
required for breaking goes on decreasing. Wear test is
carried out to see the variation in wear measurement
and coefficient of friction as the mesh size of paper
are varied. More soft the surface of material is more
wear is seen and vice-versa.
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Keywords: heat treatment, microstructure,
wear, hardness, tensile strength
1. INTRODUCTION
Sliding, Over 500 million tonnes of low
carbon steels are produced yearly around the world;
they are used for most of the engineering
applications. Low carbon steels are utilized to
produce cars body panels, tubes, domestic appliance
side panels and other engineering applications
because they are readily available, workable and
weldable [1]. Furthermore, low carbon steel also
called mild steel have carbon content below 0.2 per
cent, and manganese content below 0.7 per cent,
with maximum values for silicon, phosphorus and
sulphur at 0.6, 0.05 and 0.05 per cent respectively.
The performance of low carbon steel in service
depends on inherent factors which include its grain
size, presence of defects, its chemical composition,
ultimate Tensile strength, etc. as well as extrinsic
factors. Studies have also shown that failure of
carbon steels can result from production methods,
use of substandard material, poor design,
manufacturing errors due to poor machining, or
failure from a phenomenon called fatigue [2, 3].
Sequentially, to forestall these failures, the
mechanical properties can be changed as desired by
heat treatment [4]
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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017
Heat treatment is a combination of timed heating and
cooling applied to a particular metal or alloy in the
solid state in such ways as to produce certain
microstructure and desired mechanical properties
(hardness, toughness, yield strength, ultimate tensile
strength, Youngs modulus, percentage elongation
and percentage reduction) [5,6]. Annealing,
normalizing, hardening and tempering are the most
important heat treatments often used to modify the
microstructure and mechanical properties of
engineering materials particularly steels [7]. Metallic
materials consist of a microstructureof
small crystalscalled "grains" or crystallites. The
nature of the grains (i.e. grain size and composition)
is one of the most effective factors that can determine
the overall mechanical behavior of the metal [8].
Heat treatment provides an efficient way to
manipulate the properties of the metal by controlling
the rate of diffusionand the rate of cooling within the
microstructure [9].Annealing,
in metallurgy and materials science, is a heat
treatment that alters the physical and sometimes
chemical properties of a material to increase
its ductilityand reduce its hardness, making it more
workable. It involves heating a material to above
its recrystallization, 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. Normalizing is a technique
used to provide uniformity in grain size and
composition throughout an alloy. The term is often
used for ferrous alloys that have been austenitized
and then cooled in open air [10]. Normalizing not
only producespearlite, but also martensite and
sometimes bainite, which gives harder and stronger
steel, but with less ductility for the same composition
than full annealing.After the heat treatment process
we prepare specific specimen for different testing like
hardness test, microstructure test, tensile test and
wear test. We did hardness test using Rockwell
hardness tester as this machine can be used to test the
surface harness of material of any composition, any
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structure and shape. Coming on to microstructure test
we prepared the sample using different sizes of mesh
paper and got a flat mirror shape structure. Lapping
was used to give the final finishing to the specimens.
Microstructure of as received sample showed differed
result then the other two sample that are annealed,
and normalized ones. The tensile test was done using
tensometer at a reference speed of 0.4mm/min and a
load cell of 20030N. The standard ASTM E8
specimen was prepared in considerable number and
test was conducted to get a better view of the
variation of mechanical properties of different
specimen. Wear test was conducted by taking a
reference and constant speed of 400rpm and a load of
20N. The pin-on-disc machine as used to conduct the
test showing results of the value of wear in micron
meter and the graph of coefficient of friction. These
different results are found by using 3 sizes of mesh
paper that are 220, 600 & 1500. 600 being the
standard 220 and 1500 mesh are used to clearly
compare the variation in values.
2. OBJECTIVE
Conclusions from the literature review encouraged
for the need of a systematic study of various
tribological properties of Mild Steel. This study can
lead one to investigate the possibility of identifying
the use of these mild steel for commercial
applications like in the aerospace and automotive
industries. Therefore the work taken up had the
following objectives: To perform heat treatment on
mild steel material as per industrial applications. To
observe the changes in the microstructure of mild
steel after subjected to heat treatment and comparing
the same with the as-received material. To perform
Pin-on-disk wear test and wear measurement on
Mild steel specimens. To determine the effect of
heat-treatment on the mechanical properties of Mild
Steel such as hardness, wear, tensile strength
3. METHODOLOGY
Microstructure study
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The specimens for microstructure will be prepared as
per standard metallurgical procedures, etched in
etchant prepared using 90 ml water, 4 ml HF, 4 ml
H2S04 and 2g Cr03 (Kellers Reagent), Using Optical
Microscope.The specimens for microstructure are
prepared by heat treatment (Annealed, Normalized)
and an as received specimen of length 4-5mm and
same thickness. The specimens are properly grinded,
filed with filling, polished, and lapped to obtain a
mirror surface.
Hardness test
The hardness tests will be conducted norms using
Rockwell Hardness Testing Machine, where the tests
will be performed at randomly selected points on the
polished surface of samples by providing sufficient
space between indentations and distance from the
edges.Specification of the Rockwell hardness
machine are as follows: Indentation used is 1/4 ball
diamond indenter, Load applied is 60 kg, Dial used
isBlack and Scale used is L.
Tensile test
Tensile properties of materials will be tested in
Tensometer. UTS and percentage Elongation are
obtained by carrying out an average of 2 trails each
of heat treated and untreated specimen and tabulated.
The specimens are prepared taking ASTM E8 as the
reference and each specimen was individually tested
in the machine by using a suitable holder to hold the
specimen. The test is programmed using software
and the results are displayed on the computer screen.
Wear test
Wear is a process of removal of material from one or
both of two solid surfaces come in solid state
contact.Wear is correlated to interactions between
surfaces and more precisely, the removal and
deformation of a material on a surface as a result of
the mechanical action of the opposite surface. Dry
sliding Wear tests are carried out at room
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temperature using Pin-on-Disc apparatus for 2kgf
loads and sliding distances.
4.IMPLEMENTATION
Microstructure study
Polishing of specimen is done using sandpapers.
Sandpapers are made from garnet, aluminum oxide
or silicon carbide. They are available in different grit
sizes in the market. The grit sizes we have used are
220, 400, 600 and size 1,2,3,4 and 5 subsequently. A
particular to and fro motion is repeated on the
sandpaper. While changing the grit size of the emery
paper, the specimen is rotated by 90. Lapping is a
machining process, in which two surfaces are rubbed
together with an abrasive between them, by hand
movement or using a lapping machine. The abrasive
used here is alumina, and its solution is prepared by
dilution with water. Alumina solution is added drop
by drop while the circular platform is rotated and
specimen is rubbed against the cloth. In this way, the
surface of the specimen is mirror finished.
Hardness study
Hardness test is done on the flat surface of the
specimen prepared using Rockwell hardness tester.
A grade testing is done for soft mild steel where
diamond indenter is used for indentation and for
testing and readings are taken from the black dial of
the tester. A load of 60kg is used for this process.
The specimens after harness test is done is shown
below.
Tensile test
Tensile test is done to carry out the result about the
tensile strength of the specimen before and after heat
treatment. Tensometer is used to conduct this test
which has holder of standard sizes and the specimen
has to be prepared according to these standards. For
mild steel we take ASTM E8 as the reference and
few samples of each type of specimen is prepared.
The gauge length of the specimen must be 12mm
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and the outer diameter along this 12mm length must
be 2.5mm. The total length of specimen is 24mm
and outer most diameter is 6mm.this is the reference
for the holder used. A constant speed of 0.4mm/min
is maintained to carry out the test to get a
comparable results. The standard specimen is shown
below. The breaking of the specimen is the
completion of the test. Digital results in the form of
mathematical values and graphs are shown in the
computer screen.
Wear test
Pin-on-disc:Wear test was carried out on Pin-On-
Disc experimental set up. The samples were 10 mm
in length and 5 mm in diameter. The surfaces of the
pin samples were slides using emery paper (220,600
and 1500 grit size) prior to test in order to ensure
effective contact of fresh and flat surface with the
steel disc. The surface of the specimen is rigidly held
against the rotating disc and the wear of the specimen
takes place. The rotation speed of the disc, track
radius, time duration of test, etc. can be varied
according to the requirements. The pin was held
against the counter face of a rotating disc (steel disc)
with wear track diameter 100 mm. The pin was
loaded against the disc through a dead weight loading
system. The specimen was pressed against the disc at
a specified load by means of an arm and attached
weights. The wear test for all specimens was
conducted under the normal load of 20N. The
samples and wear track were subjected to emery
paper polishing prior to and after each test.The
measurement in reduction of height of the specimen
due to wear and coefficient of friction will be
measured continuously by electronic sensors. The
LVDT which is used, is capable of measuring a
maximum displacement of + 2 mm and the
measuring range of wear is + 2000 micron with an
accuracy of + 1m. A load cell is used to measure
frictional force. The data acquired will be processed
in the controller and transmitted to the PC using
Winducom 2006 software. Wear is measured as
reduction in specimen (pin) length in microns.
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Frictional force and coefficient of friction data are
measured as a function of time.
5. OUTCOMES
Microstructure study
The distribution of carbon particles in the mild steel
material was checked before checking the
microstructure of the specimen. A specimen without
any treatment along with two other heat treated
specimen (one annealed and one normalized) was
taken on the testing slide and was observed under the
microscope. The particle sizes were measured and it
was found correct as the particles were resting on
their maximum surface area (a stable condition).
The microstructure of mild steel shows the
distribution of ferrite which is indicated by bright
spots and pearlite which can be seen as black dots in
the grain structure of the specimen being tested. The
specimen were prepared using different size of mesh
papers along with lapping process for finishing and
finally etching was done just before the experiment.
The specimen who was tested as received from
casting (untreated) shows a large fraction of pearlite
(black dots) which is all over the ferrite region. This
shows the higher percentage of carbon content in the
untreated specimen. Whereas the pearlite distribution
is smaller in normalized specimen and is least among
all three in annealed specimen. This shows that the
carbon content is decreased in normalized specimen
and is least in annealed test specimen. This very well
explains the trend of surface hardness and tensile
characters of the specimen.
The grain size of the tested specimen is also measure
and found out to be as expected. The grain size of
untreated test specimen was found to be least and that
of annealed test specimen was largest among all three
specimens. The image of all three specimen with
their grain sizes are shown below.
Hardness test
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The below bar chart shows the result of hardness test.
As we see untreated specimen has the highest value
of RHN and annealed specimens has the lowest value
of RHN we can easily conclude that untreated
specimen is having more surface hardness than
normalized specimen and annealed specimen having
the least surface hardness among these three.
Variation of RHN
100
0
Annealed Normalized As received
Mean RHN
Tensile test
The tensile test was carried out on the following
specimen. The results obtained have been plotted in
the below bar graph from the test results generated by
the system software.From the results we concluded
that the untreated specimen had the maximum
engineering ultimate tensile stress and had the
maximum true ultimate tensile stress, whereas
normalized specimen had a lesser value and annealed
specimen had the minimum value of the engineering
UTS and true UTS.We also concluded that the load
required to break the specimen is maximum in
untreated specimen and least in annealed specimen.
The graph between load v/s displacement of all the
heat treated and untreated was obtained and analyzed.
2000
1500
1000
500
0
Annealed Normalized As received
Engg. UTS Break load
Wear test
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The test result of wear test shows approximately the
expected trend. Untreated specimen being the hardest
tends to lesser wear compare to heat treated samples
whereas annealed sample is least hard among these
three and so is more affected by wear. Also as the
mesh size used to prepare the sample goes from fine
to coarse the wear of the specimen decreases from the
result. The comparison of all the wear values of all
specimen under different meshes are shown through a
bar chart and it concludes that the wear value is
maximum in case of annealed specimen under 1500
mesh and it is minimum in case of normalized
specimen under 220 mesh.
The wear value, coefficient of friction and frictional
force of all the specimen is graphically shown
below:-
50
40
30
20
10 1500 Mesh
0
600 Mesh
220 Mesh
CONCLUSION
The comparison of the microstructures of untreated
and annealed samples revealed that the grains have
begun to grow larger in the heat-treated samples due
to stress relief. Also there is more presence of
Pearlite seen in the heat-treated samples.The
comparison of microstructure of untreated and
normalized samples revealed that the grains have
begun to grow larger but not large as annealed
samples. There is more presence of Pearlite than
untreated sample.There is also a marked change
found in the mechanical properties in terms of
increased ductility found by tensile testing.The wear
is clearly seen to increase in all the samples with
increase in the surface roughness. The wear is seen to
go up with heat-treatment possibly due to relieving of
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International e-Journal For Technology And Research-2017

the internal stresses in the material, which needs to be

confirmed by further examinations such as Scanning
Electron Microscopy.

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