Author(s)

Yashwant Mehta, P. S. Mishra

Department of Metallurgical and Materials Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology,Roorkee, Roorkee, Uttarakhand -247667, India.
Department of Metallurgical Engineering, National Institute of Technology, Srinagar,Hazratbal, Srinagar, J & K– 190006, India.

Phosphorous is widely considered as an impurity in steels. Consequently, its role as an important alloying element in iron could never be established. The present paper deals with the exploitation of phosphorous as a useful alloying element in iron in conjunction with carbon by way of improved thermo-mechanical processing leading to a tough steel equivalent to high strength low alloy steels. It was observed that phosphorous is pushed towards ferrite grains by carbon which in turn forms pearlite along ferrite grains. Suitable adjustment in the amounts of carbon and phosphorous yields an attractive set of mechanical properties after appropriate processing. Typical chemistry and processing combinations yields UTS: 700 MPa and % El: 25% Area under the stress-strain curve: 60 Joules.

Iron-Phosphorous-Carbon alloys, Microstructure, Heat treatment, MechanicalProperties.

Y. Mehta and P. Mishra, "Thermo-Mechanical Processing of Iron-Phosphorous-Carbon Alloys," Journal of Minerals and Materials Characterization and Engineering, Vol. 10 No. 1, 2011, pp. 93-100. doi: 10.4236/jmmce.2011.101006.