OS Number: 06

EFFECTS OF MN CONTENT AND HEAT TREATMENT ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF HIGH MANGANESE STEEL
Pham Mai Khanh, Nguyen Duong Nam, Le Thi Chieu, Hoang Thi Ngoc Quyen, Nguyen Thanh Son, Phan Dinh Dong and Tran Xuan Vinh School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology

ABSTRACT High manganese steels are widely used in the mining industry, cement production, diggers and railroads. These steels usually go under the name of Hadfield steels, and contain around 13% manganese and 1.2% carbon. In this paper, the authors focus to the effects of Mn contents and heat treatment processes on the mechanical properties of high manganese steel. The results show that the hardness of high manganese steel were increasing when the Mn contents increased. With the difference of heat treatment processes the microstructure and hardness were changed also.

1. INTRODUCTION The first austenitic manganese steel was developed in 1882 by Robert Abbott Hadfield. Hadfield had done a series of test with adding ferromanganese containing 80% manganese and 7% carbon to decarbonised iron. Increasing manganese and carbon contents led to increasing brittleness up to 7.5% manganese. At manganese contents above 10% however, the steel became remarkably tough. The toughness increased by heating the steel to 1000C followed by water quenching, a treatment that would render carbon steel very brittle. The alloy introduced commercially contained 1.2% carbon and 12.5% manganese. This composition is used even today, and the steel is still known as Hadfield steel [1]. Austenitic manganese steels have a proven high resistance to abrasive wear including blows and metal-to-metal wear, even though they have a low initial hardness. These steels are supposed to work harden under use and thus give a hard wear resistant surface, but it has been reported that these steels have a good wear resistance in components even without heavy mechanical deformation. These steels are for instance used in mining machinery like shovels and crushers, and railway points and crossings. There are a lot of researches about the effect of elements alloys and impact load on mechanical properties of austenitic manganese steel. According to those researches, the mechanical properties of

austenitic manganese steel ware best when the Mn contents around 14% [1]. But in recently years, the standpoints about mechanism of work-hardening of high manganese steel are changed so much. Following the new standpoints, high manganese steel can get excellent wear resistance, better strengthened as well as hardened by adjust more than 14%Mn with some alloy elements such as Cr, Mo, Therefore, the heat treatment processes are changed also. [2]. On the other hand, the impact load ware also effects on the work-hardening and the hardened depth surface [3]. In this paper, the authors focused on the effects of manganese contents and the heat treatment processes on the mechanical properties and microstructures of high manganese austenitic steel. . 2. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE The experimental alloy was melt in middle frequency induction furnace. The casting iron, Fe slab ware put into crucible first, then increased electric power to melt all of raw materials. After degassing, Fe-Cr and Fe-Mn ware put into the melt in turn. When the temperature reached 15000C, the melt was poured to the sand mould of cylinder ingot. Totally, 3 type of samples ware poured and their compositions ware showed in Table 1. Table 1. The chemical composition of samples
Samples 1 2 3 C 1.14 1.23 1.2 Si 0.775 0.762 0.585 Mn 12.80 16.10 18.40 Cr 1.95 2.20 2.10 V 0.02 0.03 0.04 Al 0.005 0.005 0.005

The ingot was cut into many pieces, and each piece of ingot got different heat treatment with varied parameters. At last, the different samples were machined to examine their microstructure, hardness and abrasive wear properties. In this research, 2 types of heat treatment processes were used. A muffle furnace was used for these heat treatments. The first heat treatment process was austenitized at 1050C for 3 hours to dissolve the more stable carbides. After austenitizing,

the t samples were water r quenched (Fig. 1). The e second s way y to heat treat sampl les is quite e complicated. c ealed before e Specimens were anne water w quench hed. Process sing of this heat treatment was w to hea at specimen ns up to 900 9 oC, keep p temperature t at that point for 50 min and cool down n 630 6 oC in the furnace for 40 4 min, then cool to room m temperature t by air, and finally wate er quench a at o ne hour (Fig. 2). 1090 C for on

Figure 3 3. Hardness of samples wit th heat treatment pro ocess No. 1

Figure 1. Heat treatm ment process No. N 1

Figure 4 4. Hardness of samples wit th ocess No. 2 heat treatment pro 2 Heat treatm ment process No. N 2 Figure 2. m ste eel with auste enite structure e If high manganese suffers s impac ct load, plast tic deformatio on occurs on n the t surface of steel, which h results in gre eat increasing g of o hardness of surface. . The exper riments were e carried c out at t the load. Sa amples were applied more e than t 1000 tim mes by load of 61N for observation o o of microstructur re and hardn ness of spe ecimens after applied a impac ct load. a heat tr reated with te echnology of No.2, All alloys have exc ceeding hardness values. Alternatively y, with the first heat h treatmen nt, sample 3 is s only one tha at has hardness s reached t the standard d values, du ue to mangane ese content of o 18%. rostructure 3.2 Micr Figu ures 5, 6 are e showed the e microstructu ure of samples 1 and 3 with h technology of heat treat tment he bulk phase e is austenite e, and there are a No.1. Th few carbides within the grains and along grain asured grain size in samp ple is boundaries. The mea mately 171m m, larger than n that in samp ple 3, approxim which is s 120m. The ere are incre easing amoun nts of carbides s both at gra ain boundarie es and within n the grains. The T carbide s size was arou und 20m. Sa ample 3 with hi igher Mn con ntent addition has smaller grain size then n sample 1. Afte er applying of o impact loa ad, deformatio on of twins an nd work hard dening are occurred. o The ereby, hardness s measurem ments increas sed. Figure 7 is showed the microstructure of sample 1 aft ter to ng of impact load, applied impact load. After applyin e observed in microstructure of steel. . And twins are carbides s are partly dissolved d into austenitic m matrix. Follows this, t the hardness on the surface s of sam mples is increa ased Twins c can be clear rly observed. . The effects of o impact load are also changed with diff ferent

3. 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 3 Hardness s of samples s The har rdness meas surements ar re in Vickers s. The T results are showed on n figures 3, 4. dness of high h manganese e steels totally y The hard increase afte er applied imp pact load of 61N 6 for more e than t 1000 tim mes. All hardness of samp ples is higher than t 200 HV after applicat tion of impact t loading. The e difference d of hardness of one alloy be etween before e and a after app plied is about 30 HV. Hardn ness of alloys s with w the sa ame compo osition, but varied hea at treatments t is s different. Hardness of o No.2 hea at treated t alloys s is higher tha an No.1 heat treated t alloys s.

grain g size of steel. With h a small gr rain size, the e deformation d of twins oc ccurs very easily. e Twins s formation f rat te is also lar rger follows increasing o of hardness.
20 m

171 1 m

magnific cation, the carbides are cle early indicate ed, as showed in figure 7. A higher fraction of undissolved s is on grain b boundaries an nd the smaller size carbides of carbid des is within th he grains, abo out 20m. A higher h density of carbide es is repre esented as the ese content is increased d. The amou unt of mangane undissolv ved carbides s in these allo oys is expect ted to increase e the wear res sistance, but also to reduc ce the toughnes ss of the alloy ys. The e microstruct ture of sam mple 3 with heat treatmen nt process No o. 2 is showed d in figure 8.

5 Microstruct ture of sample 1 with Figure 5. he eat treatment t process No. 1

20 m

120 m

5 m

gure 6. Micros structure of sa ample 3 with Fig heat treatment process s No. 2 e undissolved d carbides ca an be In this case, the hat in the sam mples almost t within the grains g found th and a little on the grain bound daries. The small hin the grain of o this sample are particles present with d to have a positive effec ct on the abr rasive expected wear res sistance, without giving too t much lo oss in toughnes ss. The heat t treatment is s a very impo ortant factor. After A annealing at tempe erature of 90 00oC, carbides s on grain bou undaries are dissolved d alm mostly, remained d a little amo ount of carbides within grains. That exp plains the dif dness of sam mples fference hard with diffe erence techno ology of heat treatments.

6 Microstruct ture of sample 3 with Figure 6. he eat treatment t process No. 1

10 m

7 Microstruct ture of sample e 1 after Figure 7. applied im mpact load f heat treatme ent processes s, With the difference of the t microstru ucture and the t hardness s of samples s were w also changed. In the heat h treated d re images of sample s 1 and 3, showing in n microstructur figures f 5 and d 6, the und dissolved carb bides can be e found f that in the samp ples almost on o the grain n a a little within the grai ins. In a high h boundaries and

USION CONCLU - Addition ma anganese and d chromium to o high manganese e steel promo oted the form mation of carbides that increase es the hardne ess of easing manga anese conten nt, the steels. Incre hardness o of high man nganese stee els is increased. d, the hardne ess of - After applied impact load anese steels increased, th hat is high manga based on the work hard dening. Twins are in micr rostructure observed and n of twins is the main ro ole to deformation work hard dening occ curred in high manganese e steel. - A new heat treatment pro ocess is necessary nd develop. Following F the e 2nd to study an

heat treatment process, the carbides are distributed in austenitic matrix as reinforcement cause increasing the hardness of steels, during annealing.

Science and Technology. Le Thi Chieu received the Eng. (1970) degree in Non-Ferrous metal from Hanoi University of Science and Technology; the M.E (1989) degree in Materials Science and Technology from Indian university; and the D.E (2001) degree in Materials Science and Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam. She is an Associate Professor, School of Materials Science and Technology, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Hoang Thi Ngoc Quyen received BE (1996 ) degree in Chemical Department from Hanoi University; the M.E (2000) degree in Materials Science, International training Institute for Material science (ITIMS) from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Nguyen Thanh Son received the Eng. (2012) degree in Materials Science and Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam.

REFERENCES 1. D.K. Subramanyam; Austenitic manganese steel, Metals Handbook 10. Edition, volume 1, Properties and selection: stainless steels, tool materials and specialpurpose metals, ASM International, 1995. 2. Sun Wei at. all; Research and development on new type of cast high manganese steel; Proceedings of the 11th Asian Foundry Congress, Guangzhou 2011, 214 221. 3. Pham Mai Khanh at. all; Effect of impaction load on work-hardening of Hadfield steel. The 4thRegional Conference on Materials, 8 9th December 2011, Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Hanoi, Vietnam, p115 118, ISBN 978-604-911-0030. Pham Mai Khanh received the Eng. (1996) degree in Metallurgical and Materials Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam; the M.Sc (2004) degree in Material Science and Engineering from Ehime University, Japan; and the D.E (2010) degree in Materials Science and Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam. He is a Lecturere, Department of Materials and Foundry Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Nguyen Duong Nam received the Eng. (2008) degree in Materials Science and Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology, Vietnam; the M.Sc (2011) degree in Material Science and Technology from Hanoi University of Science and Technology. He is a PhD Candidate from School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanoi University of

Phan Dinh Dong is a Undergraduate student from Department of Materials and Foundry Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology. Tran Xuan Vinh is a Undergraduate student from Department of Materials and Foundry Technology, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Hanoi University of Science and Technology.