Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, 2012, 11, 995-999
Published Online October 2012 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jmmce)
Influence of Boron Additions on Mechanical Properties of
Carbon Steel
Saeed N. Ghali, Hoda S. El-Faramawy, Mamdouh M. Eissa
Steel Technology Department, Central Metallurgical Research & Development Institute (CMRDI), Helwan, Cairo, Egypt
Received August 19, 2012; revised September 25, 2012; accepted October 8, 2012
ABSTRACT
This work aims at the development of carbon steel AISI 1536 through the microalloying addition of boron. Three
grades of this steel with different content of boron up to 0.0055% were melted in 100 kg induction furnace. The pro-
duced steels were hardened at 960˚C for 30 min., followed by tempering at different temperatures and durations. All
hardened steels have martensite phase as illustrated with microstructures and X-ray diffraction. Hardness of all tem-
pered steel samples was measured to calculate the activation energies of carbon migration through martensite phase.
The results indicated that the activation energies of carbon migration through martensite phase decreases with the in-
crease of boron content due to its positive effect on the crystallinity of martensite phase. Also, the results showed that
the addition of boron up to 0.0023% can improve the steel properties at the lowest temperature and tempered time.
Keywords: Boron; Steel; Microalloy; Activation Energy; Carbon Migration; Martensite
1. Introduction
Medium carbon steels (0.3% - 0.6% C) are selected for
uses where higher mechanical properties are needed. All
these medium carbon steels are suitable for wide variety
of automotive applications. AISI 1536 carbon steel is
used for more critical parts where a high strength level
and better uniformity is essential.
Boron is an interstitial element and has a very low
solubility in α-solid solution (<0.003%) [1,2]. The pri-
mary function of boron additions to heat treatable steels
is to increase their hardness [3]. In addition to the bene-
fits of economy and alloy conservation, boron steels offer
significant advantages of better extradability and ma-
chinability compared with boron—free steels of equiva-
lent hardness [4-11]. Moreover, steels containing boron
are also less susceptible to quench cracking and distor-
tion during heat treatment. Consequently, boron-con-
taining carbon and alloy steels are widely used in auto-
motive, constructional, and various other applications.
Some investigators [12-14] have reported that a small
beneficial effect of boron on toughness after tempering to
high hardness levels and a slightly adverse effect at lower
hardness. On the other hand, for steels partially hardened
or unhardened, boron either did not have a beneficial
effect on impact properties or apparently had an adverse
effect [13-15].
To maintain the desired B-hardness effect, strong ni-
tride-forming elements, such as Ti, Al, Zr and even B (at
high levels), can be added to combine with the available
nitrogen in B-treated steels [16-19]. TiN is one of the
strongest stable nitride. It has been found that excess B
approach results in decreased hardness and toughness
[20].
When using Ti to protect B, common steelmaking
practice is to add at least the stoichiometric amount of Ti
(i.e. aiming for a Ti/N ratio ≥ 3.4) to precipitate any
available N before the B addition. Because TiN is ther-
modynamically more stable than BN. The amount of Ti
added to B-alloyed steels should be limited to the levels
required to ensure a complete B-hardness effect.
The aim of the present work is enhancement of the
properties of this medium carbon steel through the inves-
tigation of the influence of boron addition on hardness,
mechanical properties, and toughness of steel grade AISI
1536. In addition to investigate the effect of boron on
carbon migration through martensite phase.
2. Experimental
Four steels with similar base composition but varying
boron contents were melted in 100 kg induction. Ingots
with diameter 100 mm were hot forged to 45 mm square.
The forging process was started and finished at 1200˚C
& 900˚C respectively. The forged bars were reheated up
to 960˚C for 30 min, followed by quenching in water.
The heat treated steels were tempered at 260˚C, 360˚C,
460˚C, and 560˚C for duration of 0.5, 1, 2, 3 hours. The

S. N. GHALI ET AL. 996
mechanical properties, microstructures, and X-ray dif-
fraction were carried out for tempered steels at 260˚C for
30 min. Impact toughness was measured at 25˚C for tem-
pered steels at lowest temperatures. Hardness was mea-
sured for tempered steels at different time and tempera-
tures to calculate the activation energy of carbon migra-
tion through martensite phase.
3. Results
AISI 1536 steel grade contains 0.3% - 0.37% C, 1.2% -
1.5% Mn, ≤0.040% P and ≤0.050% S. Its yield and ul-
timate strength are in the ranges 310 - 534 MPa, 572 -
634 MPa respectively. Also, it has 12% - 16% elongation
and hardness of tempered steel is in the range 171 - 197
HV. Boron is added to enhance the mechanical properties
of this steel grade.
The chemical compositions of produced steels are
given in Table 1. Yield, ultimate tensile strength and
elongation of tempered steels are illustrated in Figure 1.
It is noticed that the addition of B up to 0.00230 in-
creases sharply both of the yield and ultimate tensile
strength. Then, by further addition of B, there were gra-
dual increase in both yield and ultimate tensile strength.
This result agrees with literature [1] in which it was con-
cluded that the presence of boron in steel can be effective
up to 0.0030%. This is due to that boron is an interstitial
element and has a very low solubility in α-solid solution
(<0.003%) [1]. In order to raise the efficiency of the ac-
tion of boron on the hardness of steel it is necessary to
add titanium, which possesses a higher affinity for nitro-
gen than boron and also forms nitrides in liquid phase.
So, sufficient Ti was added to combine with the nitrogen
to forming TiN.
Therefore, in steel containing 0.0055% B, the titanium
content is not sufficient to combine with nitrogen. So, the
boron factor decrease and hence its effect on mechanical
properties decreases. These results are in agreement with
other work [17,21,22]. Although, the yield and the ulti-
mate strength of the developed steels increase by in-
creasing boron content, the ductility increases with in-
creasing boron content as indicated in Figure 1.
Mechanical properties of steels are showed that they
strongly connected to their microstructure obtained after
heat treatments that are generally performed in order to
achieve a good hardness and/or tensile strength with dif-
ferent sufficient ductility.
The microstructure examination of tempered steels
consists mostly of martensite phase as given in Figure 2.
The presence of boron in steels increases the hardness
which due to the presence of greater amount of marten-
site phase constituents in their microstructure which
agrees with previous work [23].
The variation of impact toughness with boron content
is illustrated in Figure 3. It is noticed that boron has
Table 1. Chemical compositions of produced steels.
Chemical composition, %
Type of
steel C MnP S B Ti N
Reference0.3571.210.02900.015 - 0.00200.0041
B1 0.3521.290.06100.028 0.00066 0.01510.0038
B2 0.3501.200.03680.014 0.00230 0.01490.0036
B3 0.3301.290.06800.034 0.00550 0.01350.0048
Boron Content, Wt. %
0.000 0.002 0.004 0.006
YS & UTS, MPa
700
800
900
1000
1100
1200
1300
YS, MPa
UTS, MPa
Elongation, %
5
10
15
20
25
Figure 1. Influence of boron content on mechanical pro-
perties.
(a)(b)
(c)(d)
ing boron content up to 0.0055 % B. this is attributed to
Figure 2. Microstructure of tempered steel (tempered tem-
perature 260˚C for 30 min) 100×. (a) Free boron; (b)
0.00066% B; (c) 0.0023% B; (d) 0.0055% B.
great significant effect on the impact toughness up to
0.0023%, then its effect decreases gradually with increas-

S. N. GHALI ET AL. 997
Boron Content, Wt. %
0.000 0.002 0.004 0.006
Impact Energy, J
0
10
20
30
40
Figure 3. Effect of boron on impact toughness at 2C.
e boron efficiency after 0.0030% decrease and also,
rder to evaluate the efficiency of the boron action,
ha
ha
(t) of all
st

5˚
th
due to the insufficient titanium content for 0.0055% B
steel.
In o
rdness of all produced steels was investigated. The
hardness measurements of quenched steels were 352 HV,
360 HV, 372 HV, and 400 HV for free boron, 0.00066%
B, 0.0023% B, and 0.0055% B respectively. This effect
of boron seems to be due to its ability to segregate at
austenite grain boundaries and inhibit the grain boundary
nucleation of ferrite. Therefore, it delays the formation of
ferrite relative to the formation of lower temperature
transformation products. In the production of dual-phase
steels, inhibition of ferrite formation would increase the
yield of martensite and consequently boron will increase
hardness [2-3]. The phase crystalinity of martensite was
confirmed by X-ray diffraction as illustrated in Figure 4.
On the base of the above investigations, boron en-
nces the formation of martensite. Hardness can be
taken as an indicator for the martensite amount.
The variation of hardness (HV) against time
eel samples at different temperatures is given in Figure
5. The rate of hardness change is directly proportional
with rate of carbon diffusion in martensite phase. That is
mean that
dHV
d
K
t

where, HV is hardness in Vickers, t is time in hour, and

V d
.
K is diffusion rate of carbon in martensite phase.

dHV dKt
dH
HV
K
t
K
tConst



(1)
K values can be got from Figure 5 (K values are the

slopes). From Arrhenius equation:
QRT
KAe

 (2)
where:
2 Theta
020406080100 120 140
Intensity
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Intensity
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Intensity
0
500
1000
1500
0020
Intensity
0
500
1000
1500
2000
Boron Free Steel
0.00066%B
0.00230%B
0.00550%B
A
AAAA
A
AAAA
A
AAAA
A
AAAA
A: Martensite
A: Martensite
A: Martensite
A: Martensite
Figure 4. X-ray diffraction of tempered steels (temped er
temperature 260˚C for 30 min).
Time, hour
0123
Hardness, HV
160
180
200
220
240
260
280
300
320
340
360
260 oC
360 oC
460
o
C
560 oC
Hardne ss, HV
200
250
300
350
Hardness, HV
200
250
300
350
200
250
300
350
A
B
C
D
(d)
Hardness, HV
(c)
(b)
˚C
˚C
˚C
˚C
(a)
Figure 5. Variation of hardness with time after tempering
at temperatures 260˚C, 360˚C, 460˚C, and 460˚C for steels:
(a) Free boron steel; (b) 0.00066% B steel; (c) 0.0023% B
steel; (d) 0.0055% B steel.

S. N. GHALI ET AL. 998
A: is the frequency factor
Q: activation energy of diffusion
R: universal gas constant
T: is absolute temperature (K)
1Q
RT



(3)
The slope of the plot betwnK and
ln ln KA
een l1
T equals
Q as illustrated in Figure 6.
he activation energy of carbo
R

Tn migration through mar-
tensi
eel grade AISI 1536 can be carried out
te phase are 6.478, 5.769, 5.452, 5.157 KJ/mol for
steels free boron, 0.00066% B, 0.00230% B, 0.00550%
B respectively. These values of activation energies are
too low. Therefore the decrease of hardness can not be
considered to the carbon migration through matensite
phase but seems to be due to stress relief. At the same
time it can be deduced that the addition of boron reduces
the energy required to rearrange carbon through marten-
site phase and as boron content increases the martensite
phase become more ordered as illustrated in X-ray dif-
fraction as given in Figure 4, and hence, the migration of
carbon becomes more difficult.
4. Conclusion
Improvement of st
by addition of boron. The results indicate that the addi-
tion of B up to 0.00230 increases sharply both the yield
and ultimate tensile strength. By further addition of B,
there were gradual increase in both yield and ultimate
tensile strength. The elongation of steel increases as bo-
ron content increases up to 0.0055%. Addition of boron
improves impact toughness at 25˚C and enhances the
1/T, K
-1
0.0010 0.0012 0.0014 0.0016 0.0018 0.0020
ln K
1.8
2.0
2.2
2.4
2.6
2.8
3.0
Free Boron
0.00067 %B
0.0023 %B
0.0055 %B
Figure 6. Plots lnK against 1/T for produced steels.
martensite formation. The activation energies of carbon
migration through martensite phase decreases with the
increase of boron content due to its positive effect on the
crystallinity of martensite phase.
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