Carbon

Carbon is the most common alloying element in steel. It is inexpensive and has a strong influence on hardness and strength. It is the basic and essential alloying element in all plain-carbon, low-alloy, and tool steels. Carbon is an interstitial element that occupies sites between the larger iron atoms in the bcc and fcc lattices. 

The influence of carbon on the strength of iron can be seen in Fig. 12. Carbon can increase yield strength of pure iron (0% C) with a strength of about 28–190 MPa. At 0.005% C, the maximum solubility of carbon at room temperature the sevenfold increase in strength is due to interstitial solid solution strengthening. Any excess carbon, above 0.005% C, will form an iron carbide compound called cementite (Fe3C). Cementite can exist as a particle, as a component of lamellar pearlite, or as a proeutectoid network on prior austenite grain boundaries in hypereutectoid steel. Thus, carbon in the form of cementite has a further influence on the strength of steel, as seen in Fig. 13. In this plot, the steels between 0.1% C and 0.8% C contain about 10–

100% pearlite. Yield strength peaks at about 425 MPa at 0.6% C whereas tensile strength (ultimate strength) increases to 790 MPa at 0.8% C. These properties are for carbon steels in the air-cooled condition. In a 0.8% C steel, a further increase in strength can be achieved if faster cooling rates are used to produce a finer pearlite interlamellar spacing. In a fully pearlitic, head-hardened rail steel (accelerated cooled), the yield strength can increase to 860 MPa and tensile strength to 1070 MPa. 

Carbon also has a negative effect on properties, as seen in Fig. 13. For example, the percent reduction in area (as well as total elongation not

shown) decreases with increasing carbon. The percent reduction in area is a measure of the cross-sectional area change in a tensile specimen before and after fracture. Notch toughness also decreases with carbon content, as seen in the decrease in upper shelf energy and the increase in transition temperature. Shelf energy is the upper portion or upper shelf of a curve of absorbed energy plotted from a Charpy test.

Mechanical Engineers’
Handbook: Materials and Mechanical Design,
Volume 1, Third Edition.
Edited by Myer Kutz

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