Low carbon steel

The material. Think of steel and you think of railroads, oil rigs, tankers, and skyscrapers. And what you are thinking of is not just steel, it is car­bon steel. That is the metal that made them possible; nothing else is at the same time so strong, so tough, so easily formed, and so cheap. Carbon steels are alloys of iron with carbon and often a little manganese, nickel, and silicon. Low carbon or "mild" steels have the least carbon—less than 0.25%. They are relatively soft, easily rolled to plate, I-sections or rod (for reinforcing concrete), and are the cheapest of all structural metals; it is these that are used on a huge scale for reinforcement, steel-framed build­ings, ship plate, and the like.

Composition

Fe/0.02-0.3C.

General properties

Density

7800 –

7900

kg/m3

Price

*0.79 –

0.90

USD/kg

Mechanical properties

Young’s modulus

200 –

215

GPa

Yield strength (elastic limit)

250 –

395

MPa

Tensile strength

345 –

580

MPa

Elongation

26 –

47

%

Hardness—Vickers

107 –

172

HV

Fatigue strength at 107 cycles

*203 –

293

MPa

Fracture toughness

*41 –

82

MPa. m1/

Thermal properties

Melting point

1480 –

1530

°C

Maximum service temperature Thermal conductor or insulator?

*350 – Good conductor

400

°C

Thermal conductivity

49 –

54

W/m. K

Specific heat capacity

460 –

505

J/kg. K

Thermal expansion coefficient

11.5 –

13

p, strain/°C

Electrical properties

Electrical conductor or insulator? Electrical resistivity

Ecoproperties: material

Annual world production

Reserves

Embodied energy, primary production CO2 footprint, primary production Water usage Eco-indicator

Typical uses. Low carbon steels are used so widely that no list would be complete. Reinforcement of concrete, steel sections for construction, sheet for roofing, car-body panels, cans, and pressed-sheet products give an idea of the scope.

Updated: October 7, 2015 — 10:10 pm