Metallography and Micro Hardening Grade 92 Steel Mse 313 Fall 2013 Brandon Cisco

Abstract
In this lab experiment basic metallurgical procedures were done in order to find the change in hardness with respect to the temperature and duration of tempering of Grade 92 Steel compared to a normalized sample. The experiment included mounting, grinding, polishing, etching, micrographs and micro hardness testing. The test found that compared to the normalized sample the higher the temperature and longer duration of tempering the lower the hardness of the sample will be. Since ductility is the inverse of hardness, as the sample is tempered at higher temperatures for longer the greater ductility it has. For my specific sample of 760C tempering for 100 hours the micro hardness was found to be 185 using the micro hardness machine.

Introduction
In this lab the 92 Grade Steel (composition in Table 1 below) was tested using basic metallurgical processes and experiments. The grade 92 Steel is to be tested to see if it is a good candidate for the Next Generation Nuclear Plants (NGNP). In order to see if this new steel meets NGNP requirements it was imperative to prepare the sample properly using metallurgical techniques to reveal the microstructure of the steel. Along with testing the specific composition of Grade 92 Steel the effects of different tempering temperatures and durations will be compared to the normalized sample. The way in which the samples will be compared is by the micro hardness of each different sample. The sample assigned to me specifically was the sample tempered at 760C for 100 hours.
Element (wt%) C 0.09 Mn 0.42 Si 0.34 P 0.015 S 0.001 Cr 8.68 Mo 0.55 V 0.19 N 0.045 Ni 0.12 Al 0.02 Nb 0.079 W 1.66 B 0.003 Fe Bal

Table 1 Composition of Grade 92

Procedure
The lab was divided into six different sections. The first four, mounting, grinding, polishing and etching were in order to prepare the sample for proper testing. After the samples were prepared the law two procedures were done. These last two were the hardness testing and the taking of the micrographs using optical microscopy. During this lab the mounting of the sample was done before we received the actual sample. Assumed the use of cool mounting was used. Each already mounted sample was marked in order to be able to tell them apart and not get them mixed up. The next step is to grind the sample to get the damaged surface from cutting the sample off of the top and reveal the microstructure. For this process Silicon Carbide Paper Discs of 400, 600, 800 and 1200 grit were used. Starting with the smallest 400 grit paper the sample was grinded in a linear fashion until all scratches in a different direction were removed. The next grit paper was then used in a different angle. This process was repeated until the 1200 grit paper was used and all the scratches were removed. Now the samples were ready for the next step which is polishing. In this step polishing cloths of nylon cotton and diamond suspension were used. The samples were polished using the grinding/polishing machine with the 3m, 1m and 0.5m diamond suspension and cloth. The sample was polished starting from the largest cloth to the smallest until the sample was shiny and reflective with no scratches on the surface. Now with the samples being shiny and reflective it is imperative to etch the sample making it available to be micro graphed. In this process the top surface is selectively corroded by acid to show the

microstructure. The sample is etched until it is no longer shiny but not too much to where it appears dark grey. The sample was then rinsed with Di water to remove any acid still on the surface. The samples were now ready to be tested. The micrograph was taken first to show the microstructure and to make sure it was visible for micro hardness. The micrographs were taken at 50X and 10X for the 760C-100hrs sample. After the micrographs were taken the micro hardness was tested using the micro hardness machine. The samples were tested using a force of 500 grams and the hardness was calculated by looking at the sample under microscope and width of dents and use of a table chart provided by the machine manufacturer the hardness was found.

Results
The hardness results for the 760C-100hrs is in Table 2 below. Try 1 2 3 4 Avg Diameter 1 (m) 69.9 69.4 71.1 70.8 Diameter 2 (m) 70.9 69.6 71.8 71.9 Diameter Avg (m) 70.4 69.5 71.4 71.3 Hardness # 187 192 182 182 185

Table 2 Micro Hardness for 760C-100hrs The diameters were the measured lengths from corner to corner of the dent made by the machine at 500 grams. The hardness number was obtained using a table from the manufacturer. Hardness Normalized 3 hrs @ 1050C Tempered Samples 10 hrs @ 560C 100 hrs @560C 1000 hrs @ 560C 100 hrs @ 610C 10 hrs @ 660C 100 hrs @ 660C 1000 hrs @ 660C 10 hrs @ 760C 100 hrs @ 760C 404.5 342.3 323.4 327.3 283.4 291.8 262.0 172.0 191.3 185.0 Table 3 Micro Hardness of Different Tempered Samples

Micro Hardness
450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 Normalized 560C Normalized 610C 10hrs 100hrs 660C 1000hrs 760

Figure 1 Micro Hardness of Different Samples

Figure 2 Micrograph Tempered 760C-100hrs at 50X Magnification

Figure 3 Micrograph Tempered 760C-100hrs at 50X Magnification

Figure 4 Micrograph Normalized 1050C-3hrs at 20X Magnification

Figure 5 Micrograph Tempered 560C-100hrs at 50X Magnification Discussion/Conclusion

From the data in Figure 1 we can conclude multiple things. The first is that as the tempering temperature increases the micro hardness decreases and ductility therefore increases. This is apparent by looking at the 100hrs data which shows a negative slope in bar graphs as temperature rises. Along with the decrease in hardness as tempering temperature increases we can also conclude that the longer the sample is tempered the less hardness and more ductility the sample has. This is apparent by the overall look of Figure 1 except the 560C sample where the 1000hrs actually has a larger hardness number. This may be a result of a fault in measurement. All of these conclusions are still applicable looking at the normalized sample as the hardness is smaller on all the tempered samples. As for the micrographs the resolution is not clear enough to really find the grain size for each different sample. More test must be taken to correlate the effects of tempering on grain size in the Grade 92 Steel.