To Study the Microstructural Evolution of EN353 Steel under Different Heat Treatment Conditions

Steel is basically used in construction, automobile, buildings, infrastructure, tools, ships, appliances, machines and weapons due to its good mechanical as well as metallurgical properties. Heat treatment of steels significantly enhance its mechanical and metallurgical properties due to the formation of various phases depending upon the type of steel used for specific application. In present study, blank of EN353 grade steel having different sizes were used to investigate the effect of heat treatment and microstructural changes. JMat-Pro software was used to predict the continuous cooling transformation behaviour of EN353 steel. Different phases such as bainite, perlite and other carbide inclusion can be observed in the microstructural examination. Pearlitic microstructure developed for the specimen of size 40×40×40 mm heated at 870°C for 2 hrs and then isothermal heating was performed for same specimen at 600°C for 73 min followed by air cooling. Relevance Statement: Steel is an important material which is frequently used in almost all areas such as structure building, pressure vessels, transportation and many more other applications. Addition of alloying elements in parent steel significantly improve the metallurgical as well as mechanical properties. Steel properties like tensile strength, toughness, ductility, corrosion resistance, wear resistance, hardness, hot hardness, weldability, fatigue etc. significantly improved with the addition of alloying and heat treatment. Heat treatment processes can be used to improve the properties of steel which are frequently used in many manufacturing industries. Different grades of steels which are heat treated under a set of sequence of heating and cooling to change their physical and mechanical properties so that it can fulfil its function under loading condition. With the help of heat treatment process desired microstructure has been achieved which exhibit good mechanical properties of steels.