Essay Example on Steel: Mixing Iron, Carbon, and Other Elements for Strength

Steel

Steel is an alloy of iron and a few percentages of carbon. A few percentages of carbon is added to iron to improve the strength of iron. However, other elements may be added. Stainless steels contain a minimum of 11% chromium and less than 1.2% carbon (Cai 2014). Other alloying elements may be added. These alloying elements may include silicon and nickel.

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Stainless Steel

Stainless steel is made by mixing these elements and melting them together in an electric furnace, an 8-10 hour process that involves a lot of heat. Stainless steel can be hardened using cold working methods to make it high strength, depending on the needs.

A column, also known as a pillar, is a vertical structure in engineering used to support and transmit weight. A column transmits weight through compression, the structure's weight, and any object on the structure above, to the elements below. A column is usually made of iron or steel and concrete. Columns are made to be very strong because they support and transmit a lot of weight. Therefore, the materials making these columns must be very efficient and robust. Many columns that are used to support vast loads of weight are made of stainless steel. The stainless steel is usually very strong.

Applications of high strength stainless steel columns

High strength steel columns are used in tall buildings to support and transmit the weight of materials above, including roofing. High strength stainless steel columns are used in the construction of bridges. These columns support the materials' colossal weight made to construct the road and the vehicles' weight above. Specifically, high strength stainless steel columns are used to support beams that lie horizontally above them in buildings. They transmit the weight of these beams to the elements below them.

Numerical Modelling

Civil engineers use numerical modeling to evaluate objects such as rocks and how they may affect constructed structures. In this case, it evaluates how objects like rocks may affect high strength steel columns and beams. Axial and transverse compression is brought about by force (Krizek, 2013). Objects such as rocks may produce these forces that may axially or transversely compress stainless steel columns and beams.

Axial compression on a column

Axial compression on a column is applying a certain amount of load or force to a column such that the load or force acts on the end of the column, transmitting the weight downwards (Alam 2019). This is illustrated below.

These loads are applied to the ends of the member column to produce axial compressive stresses. The compression results in the transmission of the weight from the load downwards to the elements below. Axial compression in a column is basically loading along the length of the column.

Transverse Impact

Transverse impact or loading happens when the load or force is applied perpendicular to the axial loading. The transverse loading makes a 90% angle with the axial loading on a beam or a column. This has the effect of causing perpendicular stressing or bending. The impact of transverse loading on a beam or a column is illustrated in the pictures below.

Types of stainless steel

• Ferritic Stainless Steel – this type of stainless steel has a shallow composition of carbon. The carbon composition usually does not exceed 0.1%. This type of steel is mainly composed of the element Chromium. Because of this, they are very resistant to corrosion. They are therefore applied in industries like in the manufacture of cars. They are also used to make kitchenware because of the same property of resisting corrosion (Martins 2014)
• Martensitic stainless steel – in terms of structure, this type of steel is the same as ferritic stainless steel. The difference between martensitic stainless steel and ferritic stainless steel comes in because of their carbon percentages. Martensitic stainless steels have a higher carbon percentage that is usually around 1%. Because of this higher percentage of carbon, these stainless steels can be hardened further, and hence they can be made stronger. Because they also have a high percentage of chromium, they can be strong and averagely resistant to corrosion. They are therefore applied in making materials that require these specifications, such as water pumps.
• Austenitic stainless steel – this is the most common type of steel. It has a very high composition of the element nickel. It also generally has a high composition of other elements such as chromium and molybdenum. Thus, it possesses good characteristics of being both strong and highly resistant to corrosion. It also possesses qualities like malleability, which is the ability to be formed into sheets without breaking. Austenitic stainless steel, therefore, has a lot of applications. However, because of these qualities, it is costly.
• Duplex stainless steel – this type of steel is a combination of both ferritic and austenitic stainless sheets of steel. It has a less composition of nickel. It is mostly applied in underwater oil industries because of the property of resisting corrosion due to saltwater.

Categories of failure modes in steel

Failure modes in steel are a result of corrosion and other types of mechanical damage. Mostly, it is due to corrosion. The person who examines what causes the metal to fail is called a metallurgist. Failure modes in steel can be manifested in the following ways:

• Mechanical overload. This type of failure happens due to a weight or a load that outstretches the limit of the steel. This could be as a result of the weight being excess or going beyond the limit, or the stainless steel being weaker than expected (Cai 2014)
• Fatigue – This is the weakening of a structure, especially those supported by metal such as steel, which happens progressively in a cycle. Typically, in a concrete structure supported by weak or failing steel, a crack happens that grows with time until the steel and structure generally reach maximum weakness.
• Hydrogen embrittlement – this is generally the cracking in a metal in this case steel that is induced by hydrogen. When a steel is subjected to stress and hydrogen, it may crack
• Creep- This type o failure is the behavior of metal slowly as a result of stress. This stress may be below the metal's strength capability but maybe making the metal to move slowly. Over time, this slow movement could be significant. Corrosive fatigue – this is the weakening of steel in the form the cyclic fatigue, but in this case, the metal is in a corrosive environment. The mechanical failure of steel is higher because of the presence of a material to induce stress and be in a corrosive environment.

Types of failure modes in high strength stainless steel

• Plastic Global Failure – plasticity is a common mechanism that is evident in high strength stainless steel. Excessive plasticity, especially in austenitic stainless steel, causes the steel's general failure when the plasticity collapses.
• Tensile tearing failure- tensile strength is the capability of a material to withstand the force of pulling away or being stretched. Tensile tearing failure in high strength stainless steel is the incapability of high strength stainless steel to withstand this kind of force.
• Transverse shear failure- is the inability of high strength stainless steels to develop resistance to materials or loads perpendicularly or transverse. Shear failure causes the appearance of cracks in structures. Therefore, the onset of shear failure can be determined by observing the appearance of cracks in structures like columns or beams made of high strength stainless steels.
• Plastic buckling- buckling is a material's behavior to bend and give away when a critical force is applied to it. High strength structures such as columns or beams may be buckle when a constant critical force or load is applied. This happens when this applied load or weight is beyond the structure's limit and, of course, the high strength stainless steel, adding strength to the structure.

Due to these failure modes, high strength stainless steel may fail due to the factors mentioned for steel above. High strength stainless steel is applied in critical structures such as making beams and columns in tall and big buildings and bridges. As mentioned above, any failure that may occur in these stainless steels may be very costly in terms of the destruction of a lot of money and maybe the loss of lives.

In buildings generally, beams are used to support slabs that support weight on materials that lie or will lie on top of the slabs. These concrete slabs are made by adding the concrete mixture to stainless steel. The purpose of these steels is to support the weight. Columns on the hand support these beams and hence the slabs. They are vertical structures that make a 90-degree angle with the ground below them. They are made of high strength stainless steels with a concrete mixture added to them. They therefore support and transmit a lot of weight downwards. In bridges, columns support a lot of load and weight exerted by the materials that make the roads above them. Vehicles and accidents especially make exert a lot of weight. Therefore, the stainless steels that make these column members must be very strong to handle and transmit the weight.

Conclusion

As illustrated in the four pictures above, axial compression and impact loading are certain kinds of forces that cause high strength stainless steel columns to behave in a certain way. These reactions, as a result of these types of impacts, may cause failure in these structures. Axially compressed columns are columns that are subjected to some force above them. This force acts directly on top of them. The columns then support and transmit the weight downwards along the axis of the column. Transverse impact loading is a kind of pressure exerted by a load or force towards the column in such a way as to make a 90-degree angle with the axial loading. This means that the transverse loading acts perpendicular to the axial loading. The idea or expectation is that if the structure, which includes the high strength stainless steel columns, is acted upon by a transverse force that goes beyond its limit, it may cause behavior such as bending, bending and breaking off from altogether or breaking off of the column from the joints.