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Failure analysis of re-bars during bending operations

Article  in  Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis · October 2014

DOI: 10.1016/j.csefa.2014.04.003

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 Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis 2 (2014) 51–53

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/csefa

Short communication

Failure analysis of re-bars during bending operations

Souvik Das *, Jitendra Mathur, Tanmay Bhattacharyya, Sandip Bhattacharyya
R&D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel Limited, Jamshedpur 831001, India

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Article history: Thermo-mechanical treated (TMT) rebar is suitable material for reinforcing concrete
Received 22 February 2014 structures on accounts of similarity in thermal expansion, ability to bond well with
Received in revised form 29 April 2014 concrete and, above all the ability to shoulder most of the tensile stress acting on the
Accepted 30 April 2014 structure and also steel manufacturing industry has successfully developed a corrosion-
Available online 9 May 2014 resistant variety of rebar for the construction industry. As the TMT is the finish product
thus proper control of rolling parameters and water box is needed to achieve adequate
Keywords: property. Water box plays an important role for achieving the final structure and property
TMT
of the rebars. Water box is responsible for outer rim formation and which helps to achieve
Water box
the yield strength of the material. The present paper highlights failure investigation of a
Martensitic structure
failed rebar during bending operations. From fractography and microstructural analysis it
is confirmed that the rebar sample failed in brittle manner due to through harden
martensitic structure and which indicates that there is some anomaly in water box
resulting in these premature failures.
ß 2014 Souvik Das. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC
BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).

1. Introductions

TMT (thermo-mechanical treated) rebar is appropriate material for reinforcing concrete structures on accounts of
similarity in thermal expansion, ability to bond well with concrete and, above all the ability to shoulder most of the tensile
stress acting on the structure and also steel manufacturing industry has successfully developed a corrosion-resistant variety
of rebar for the construction industry [1,2]. Rebars are ‘‘hot rolled’’ from steel billets and subjected to on-line thermo
mechanical treatment in three successive stages [3]: Quenching: Hot rolled bar leaving the final mill stand is rapidly
quenched by a special water spray system. This hardens the surface of the bar to a depth optimized for each section through
formation of martensitic rim while the core remains hot and austenitic. Self-tempering: When the bar leaves the quenching
box, the core remains hot compared to the surface. The temperature difference allows heat to flow from the core to surface
causing tempering of martensite to ‘‘tempered martensite’’. The core still remains austenitic at this stage. Atmospheric
cooling: This takes place on the cooling bed, where the austenitic core is transformed into ductile ferrite–pearlite structure.
Thus the final structure consists of an optimum combination of strong outer rim (tempered martensite) with a ductile core
(ferrite + pearlite). In some cases, according to the values of the controlling parameter, austenite layer below the quenched
skin transformed partially or completely to bainite. As a result, three concentric layers in cross section formed are: (a) rim of
tempered martensite, (b) bainite, and (c) ferrite + pearlite (F + P) at the centre [4]. These bars therefore exhibit a variation in
microstructure in their cross section, having strong, tough, tempered martensite in the surface layer of the bar, an
intermediate layer of martensite and bainite, and a refined, tough and ductile ferrite and pearlite core.

* Corresponding author at: Metallurgical Laboratories and QA Group, R&D and Scientific Services, Tata Steel Ltd., Jamshedpur 831001, India.
Tel.: +91 809284714; fax: +91 657 234395.
E-mail address: [email protected] (S. Das).

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.csefa.2014.04.003
2213-2902/ß 2014 Souvik Das. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/).
52 S. Das et al. / Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis 2 (2014) 51–53

In this present work failure analysis of failed rebar samples during bending operations was carried out to find the geneses
of failure.

2. Experimental procedure

One failed re-bars samples during after bend test and also samples adjacent from the failed sample without bend test
were collected from operation sites. The samples were cleaned with acetone to remove dirt for visual examination prior to
metallographic sample preparation. Specimens were prepared from the fractured end of each failed re-bar sample for
fractography under Field Emission Gun Scanning Electron Microscope (FEG-SEM) to identity mode of failure. The analyses
were performed at 15 keV accelerating voltage and 5  10 8 A probe current. For microstructural analysis samples were
individually mounted in electrically conductive copper-containing resin and polished by conventional metallographic
techniques. The polished samples were etched with 3% nital solution (3 ml HNO3 in 97 ml ethyl alcohol) for analysis of
microstructure and studied under light optical microscope (LOM). Hardness testing was carried out on the sample at
different locations in Vickers hardness tester. During testing an applied load of 30 kg f was used and several indentations
were made to determine the average HV. Chemical analysis of the samples was carried out in LECO to determine the exact
element concentration.

3. Experimental results

3.1. Visual observation

Visual observation of the failed samples shows that the sample was longitudinal split which occurred during bending
operations. Fracture surface of the rebar samples shows radial marks (shear ledges) look like ‘V’ throughout the longitudinal
locations. The appearance look like chevron marks which gives indication of brittle nature of fracture shown in Fig. 1.

3.2. Sample characteristics

The rebar that underwent breakage at the time of bending operations had been processed from high carbon (0.20 wt.% C),
130 by 130 mm square billets. The sample investigated in 32 mm diameters. Details of the rebar are provided in Table 1.

3.3. Fractography

Fractography was carried out for the failed samples to find out the mode of failure. The fracture surface shows
predominantly cleavage facets with some amount of micro voids in it, which are characteristics of brittle fracture as shown in
Fig. 2a and b.

3.4. Microstructural analysis

Transverse micro specimen was prepared, etched with 3% nital and studied under upright LOM at different
magnifications for microstructural evaluation at core and edge of rebar sample. Predominantly through harden martensitic
matrix was observed from core to edge of the rebar sample with few amounts of retain austenitic structure as shown in
[(Fig._1)TD$IG] 3a and b.
Fig.

Fig. 1. Split rebar sample after bending operations.

Table 1
Details of rebar samples.

Spec Sample type Chemical composition (wt.%) Section (mm)

C Mn S P Si Cr V Cu

1 Rebar 0.205 1.10 0.012 0.024 0.238 0.17 0.0015 0.005 32

[(Fig._2)TD$IG] S. Das et al. / Case Studies in Engineering Failure Analysis 2 (2014) 51–53 53

Fig. 2. (a) Dual image of failed samples. (b) SEM micrographs of cleavage facets in the surface of the failed rebar samples.

[(Fig._3)TD$IG]

Fig. 3. (a) Martensitic matrix was observed in the core of the rebar sample; (b) martensitic matrix was observed in the edge of the rebar sample.

3.5. Hardness measurement

Bulk hardness testing (HV) was done in the Vickers hardness testing machine to examine the hardness value through out
the locations. From centre to the edge of the rebar samples shows unifrom hardness and the average hardness was about 328
HV, which is quite unusal in the normal rebar structure.

4. Discussions

From the visual observation of the failed samples chervon markrs were observed through out the locations of the
centrally splitted re-bar samples. The factography analysis of the fracture surface shows predominantly cleavage facets at
the surface of the failed samples. From visual and fractography analysis results the indication of brittle nature of fracture was
obtained. From the microstructure analysis through harden martensitic matrix was observed from core to edge of the rebar
sample with few amounts of retain austenitic structure (average 328 HV). From all the analysis we can conclude that the
rebar got through quenched due to some anomoly while passing through the waterbox during hot rolling. Thus through
hardnend structure was formed and during bending operations catastrophic failure was occurred.

5. Conclusion

Rebars were over-quenched in water box due to mismatch in mill speed and water flow through water box which
resulting to premature failure during bending operations.

References

[1] Chakrabarti I, Bhattacharyya T, Maheshwari MD, Venugopalan T, Chakravorty AK. High strength rebars for the Indian construction industry. Tata Search
2006;2:395–403.
[2] IS 1786 Indian Specification for High Strength Deformed Steel Bars and Wires for Concrete Reinforcement.
[3] Markan RK. Steel reinforcement for India, relevance of quenching & tempering technology. Steel World; 2005. p. 4–9.
[4] Zaky AI, El-Morsy A, El-Bitar T. Effect of different cooling rates on thermomechanically processed high-strength rebar steel. J Mater Process Technol
2009;209:1565–9.

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