126 Technical Article

Reinforcing Bar: Hardening Mechanisms and

Performance in Use

The alternatives for the

production of concrete
reinforcing bars are analyzed:
C oncrete reinforcing bars are a
very important market for steel.
The steel for these products is gener-
16-mm rebar with a finishing block
in each strand.3
Recently, micro-mills have
solid solution hardening ally melted in scrap-based electric emerged with small electric arc or
(“natural hardness”); quench arc furnaces. Refining is carried induction furnaces, continuous cast-
hardening and self-tempering; out in a ladle furnace, if available. ing without billet cutting, tempera-
and grain refining/precipitation Casting is performed in billet cast- ture equalization by inductors and a
hardening (microalloying ers, through the metering nozzle continuous rolling line, cutting the
with niobium, vanadium or and with oil lubrication, as opposed bar after rolling.4
titanium) and their influence on to special bar quality (SBQ) bar and Productivity and low cost are
the performance of the rebar, wire rod, which are cast through advantages in the manufacture of
regarding corrosion resistance, submerged-entry nozzles, under these products. Production facili-
fire and earthquakes. mold flux, because of the required ties tend to be installed close to the
surface and inner quality of these consumer market. Most production
products. is consumed in the domestic market.
Hot billet charging to the reheat- Rebar standards vary from country
ing furnace is preferred, as a way to country depending on the pro-
to decrease fuel consumption and pensity to earthquakes, local culture
increase productivity. Continuous in construction and other factors.
or open mills are used, depending At present, three technolo-
on the level of production desired. gies exist for designing the mate-
It may be rolling mills producing rial of the rebar: natural hardness
exclusively straight rebar, or com- bars, where high yield strength is
bined mills including a wire rod obtained through the mechanism
rolling facility. Many of these mills, of solid solution of carbon and man-
to maintain high productivity when ganese in the steel; on-line heat-
rolling small-size bar, have the possi- treated bars, with lower carbon con-
bility to carry out split rolling.2 A set tent and manganese; and niobium/
of stands can divide the billet into vanadium microalloyed bars. Each
two, three or four strands (Fig. 1). material design method has certain
Another alternative is the high- peculiarities and remains a matter
speed rolling of two strands of 8- to for technical discussion in the stan-
dard bodies, research centers, man-
ufacturers and users.
The ability to bend,
weld, resist corrosion,
Figure 1 and support against fire
Authors or earthquake damage
AUG 2017    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

Jorge Madias (top row, left) is different in each case.

director, metallon, San Nicolás, Here the main fea-
I

BA, Argentina tures of the three alter-

[email protected]
natives are mentioned;
Michael Wright (top row, right) then, recent research
managing director, Modern Metal on the behavior of the
Consulting, Singapore
[email protected] bars in front of differ-
ent requirements that
Pedro Wolkowicz (bottom row) arise throughout their
I

independent consultant, Rosario,

SF, Argentina life cycle is presented.
[email protected] Slitting: formation of four bars from a billet.2
 127

Figure 2
Solid Solution Hardening

Through classic solid solution hardening, the required

mechanical properties are obtained by high carbon
and manganese content. A high-equivalent carbon,
particularly for larger diameters, means that difficul-
ties arise when welding operations are required. With
this hardening mechanism, ductility decreases for
higher yield strength.
Unlike on-line quenched and self-tempered rebar,
solution-hardened rebar does not require additional
equipment in the mill. It is present in many markets
worldwide, but has a particular prevalence in the U.S.
This is because of a stipulation of ASTM A706, which
requires a relationship between tensile strength and
yield strength of at least 1.25.5 For this ratio, also
known as strain-hardening ratio, lower values are
required in other countries. In quenched rebar, the
high ration is not easily achieved under economic con- Outline of the treatment for quenching and self-tempering.7
ditions, as discussed in the relevant paragraph.

On-Line Quenching and Self-Tempering Grain Refining/Precipitation Hardening

The basic principle of a rebar quenching line is Microalloying is driven by two forces:
presented in Fig. 2. Upon completion of the rolling
process, the bar in the austenitic state enters into a 1. Rebar producers that need to produce natural
system in which the surface is cooled by water at a hardness weldable steel bars.
pressure and flowrate large enough to decrease the 2. When high yield strength is required.
temperature of a surface layer below the martensite
start temperature. When the bar leaves the cooled The elements used are usually niobium, vanadium
area, the heat accumulated in the core is driven out- or combinations thereof. The mechanism by which
ward, causing the self-tempering of the martensite they impart greater strength is known as precipitation
layer. Finally, in the cooling bed, the still-austenitic hardening. Depending on the content of microalloy-
core becomes transformed ferrite and pearlite.6 With ing elements carbon and nitrogen, the precipitation
this combination of structures, lower carbon and of carbonitrides occurs. Microalloyed steels began
manganese content is necessary to fulfill mechanical to be adopted for the production of rebar in the late
properties. Thus, weldable rebar is obtained, and at a 1960s.9
lower alloying cost. The acting mechanisms of niobium and vanadium
This process was developed by Centre de Recherches are different. Niobium acts in three aspects: while
Métallurgiques (CRM), Liège, Belgium, under the being in solid solution, it inhibits the grain growing
trade name Tempcore in the 1970s. The cooling sys- during reheating of the billets. Then it delays the
tem consists of several boxes of cooling tubes in which recovery and recrystallization of the material during
a water flow of 600 to 800 m3/minute is introduced, hot rolling. Finally, the precipitation of small particles
depending on the diameter of the bar being pro- of niobium carbonitride increases the mechanical
cessed, at a pressure on the order of 1.2 MPa.7 When strength of ferrite.
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the patent expired, various rolling mill suppliers The effect on the mechanical properties is impor-
implemented similar systems, under various denomi- tant, even for low carbon content, for which the weld-
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nations. However, Tempcore retains 80 licensees to ability is high. The reheating temperature is relevant
date.8 Later on, other processes were developed. to the performance of the bar. At higher reheat tem-
Quenched rebar has a hardness gradient from the peratures, niobium exerts greater influence on the
surface to the core, which responds to changes in the mechanical properties (Fig. 3).
microstructure achieved with the treatment. Vanadium operates at temperatures below those of
niobium. The vanadium carbonitrides are precipitat-
ed during rolling and cooling. From the point of view
I

of the continuous casting of billets, they are less risky

with respect to the formation of transverse corner, to
128 Technical Article
Figure 3
560 720 32
0 NB 0 NB
540 31
5 NB 700 5 NB
520 5 NV 5 NV
30
680
500
LYP (MPa)

TS (MPa)
29

El (%)
480 660
28
460
640
27 0 NB
440
620 5 NB
420 26
5 NV
400 600 25
1000 1100 1200 1300 1000 1100 1200 1300 1000 1100 1200 1300
RT (°C) RT (°C) RT (°C)
(a) (b) (c)

Influence of the reheating temperature on yield strength (a), tensile strength (b) and elongation (c), on bars without addition of
microalloys, with addition of niobium and addition of niobium and vanadium.10 0 NB: base metal; 5 NB: with 0.05% Nb; 5NV:
0.05% to 0.05% Nb and V.

which niobium steels usually have some sensitivity. Natural-hardness rebar is protected by a thick layer
Vanadium allows for a seismic ratio that meets the of scale, while heat-treated rebar has a layer of fine
requirements of various standards and high uniform scale and can be oxidized more easily outdoors. It is
elongation.11 important to take into account that in the case of bar
in coil; during straightening much of the coarse scale
is lost.
Corrosion Research by Lundberg concludes that to improve
performance of the quenched bars under short-term
There are two different situations: one is the sur- corrosion, a low self-tempering temperature is desir-
face appearance of the bar or wire rod when being able (Fig. 4).
acquired or used; another is the behavior when Regarding the influence of surface condition of
immersed in concrete. the material before immersion in the concrete on the
corrosion while immersed in concrete, the
results of various studies are controversial.
Researchers testing immersion of bars in
Figure 4 concrete under high chloride conditions
found that the best behavior occurred
5 when the bar was oxidized previously.
However, other researchers who studied
concretes with low chloride claim other-
4
wise: pre-oxidation promotes corrosion.12
As for the long-term corrosion, depend-
Degree of Corrosion

3 ing on the process used in the manu-

facture of bars, a study in the research
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center of SABIC, the holding company

2
that includes Saudi steelmaker Hadeed,
I

concluded that after exposure in air dur-

1 ing three years, treated bars behaved bet-
ter than natural-hardness rebar (Fig. 5).
The standard test for measuring the
0
550 600 650 700 750 800 850 900 950 corrosion activity on the bars immersed
Tempering Temperature °C in concrete measurement is the half-
cell potential. In a 450-day test, expos-
I

Influence of self-tempering temperate of heat-treated rebar, on the extent ing the bars immersed in concrete to
of corrosion in 48 hours.13 a chloride solution, half-cell potential
 129

Figure 5
was periodically measured against a stan-
dard reference electrode. Corrosion of
Quenched Steel Conventional Hot-Rolled the bars is more than 90% likely if the

Mass Loss (gms/dm2)

4.0 measured potential is more negative than
3.0
–350 mV. This probability drops to 10% if
2.0
the potential is more positive than –200
1.0
mV. Between –200 and –350 mV, condi-
0.0
0 6 12 18 24 30 36 tions are uncertain. In Fig. 6, the mea-
Exposure Duration (Months)
sured potential for tempered bars and
(a) (b) bars of natural hardness14 are presented.
For tempered bars it takes longer to reach
Exhibition of rebar samples of air (a) and mass loss over 36 months of the potential of –350 mV.
exposure (b).14

Behavior in Earthquakes
Figure 6
When the objective is to comply with rules
Quenched Steel Conventional Hot-Rolled
100
requiring a relationship between tensile
0
strength and yield strength of at least 1.25,
Half Cell Potential (mV)

there are limitations to the tempering

-100 0 100 200 300 400 500
process on-line. In temperate bars, the
-200
outer layer with martensite has reduced
-300
response to plastic deformation than the
-400
core (Fig. 7a). The bar as a whole behaves
-500
as a weighted average of the properties
-600
of the outer layer and the core (Fig. 7b).
-700
Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a high
-800
ratio of tensile strength and yield stress.15
Exposure Duration in Seawater (Days) Youlin Xu of the Chinese Academy of
Building Research conducted a detailed
Measurement of half-cell potential for tempered bars and natural hardness study on the performance of the bars in the
immersed in concrete during 450 days.14 earthquake in Wenchuan, China, in 2008,
showing specific cases that reflect the dif-
ferent modes fracture (Figs. 8 and 9).16
Their conclusions disqualify the use of

Figure 7

Martensite
Martensite

Composite

Pearlite-Ferrite
Stress

Stress

Pearlite-Ferrite
IAUG 2017    IRON & STEEL TECHNOLOGY   AIST.ORG

Strain Strain
(a) (b)
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Schematic stress-strain curve for martensite outer layer and ferrite-pearlite core (a) and stress-strain curve of the bar, averaging
the curves for outer layer and core (b).16
130 Technical Article
Figure 8
cold twisted bars, which have vir-
tually no elongation, and empha-
size the need to use materials
that have a high ratio of tensile
strength and yield strength.
Japan suffered the Kanto earth-
quake in 1923, with the destruc-
tion of 450,000 buildings and loss
of 143,000 lives. In 1995 came the
Hanshin-Awaji earthquake, with
the collapse of 104,906 buildings
and 6,433 deaths. Japanese build- (a) (b)
ing codes require structural cal-
Wenchuan earthquake. Building collapsed with brittle fracture (a); building with
culations, including seismic forces columns, which cracked but did not collapse in the earthquake (b).16
since 1924, the first in the world to
demand it.17 Japanese Industrial
Standards ( JIS) requires high Figure 9
elongation, even for bars of maxi-
mum tensile strength.
Under extreme seismic condi-
tions, structures suffer a small
number of very large displace-
ment cycles. The behavior of rebar
in these conditions can be stud-
ied by testing low-cycle fatigue.
For example, a study of this kind
on tempered bars, ribbed and
smooth, and bars subjected to (a) (b)
other thermal treatments, blast-
ing and corrosion, allowed for Wenchuan Earthquake. Column collapsed, with weak boards (a). Column cracked
the conclusion that the presence but still fulfilling its structural function, temper-resistant (b).16
of ribs reduces the performance
of the bars under cyclic loading;
the ductility of the steel is most
important in improving the resistance to low-cycle
fatigue; and corrosion parameter is extremely danger-
Figure 10
ous for the behavior in these efforts.18

Behavior Under Fire

Once human safety is guaranteed in a fire, it is neces-

sary to evaluate the bearing capacity of the structure
that was exposed to fire. It is therefore important to
know the residual properties of damaged materials.
Residual concrete properties are well-known, but data
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on the bars are scarce.

The Milano University of Technology, Italy, has
I

made a comparative study of residual behavior of

different types of bars after being subjected to heat,
Thermal cycling fire simulation for different temperature and
up to 850°C, including bars of natural hardness and duration.20
tempered bars on-line. In Fig. 10, the heating cycles
to which the bars were subjected are presented. Fig. 11
presents a comparison in yield point of different bars
tested. It is observed that the bars of natural hardness
I

better maintain their yield point than tempered bars

after being subjected to fire.19
 131

Figure 11

(a) (b)

Evolution of the yield strength for different types of concrete reinforcement, depending on the temperature during the fire
supported.19

8. J.P. Florindo Lourenço, “Study of the Behavior of Rods From Steel

Conclusions to Concrete Using the Tempcore Process,” master’s dissertation,
Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, October 2012.
In the manufacture of concrete reinforcing bars, dif- 9. A.M. Sage, “Effect of Vanadium Steels, Nitrogen, and Aluminum on
ferent designs of materials and equipment coexist the Mechanical Properties of Reinforcing Bar,” Metals Technology,
February 1976, pp. 65–70.
to obtain the required mechanical properties. The
10. S. Hashimoto and M. Nakamura, “Effects of Microalloying Elements on
twisted cold steel loses all elongation after processing, Mechanical Properties of Reinforcing Bars,” ISIJ International, Vol. 46,
and is still important in China and India, but is being No. 10, 2006, pp. 1510–1515.
abandoned. Three technologies dominate hardening: 11. D. Milbourn and L. Yu, “Metallurgical Benefits of Vanadium Microalloying
solid solution, precipitation hardening and quench in Producing High Strength Rebar Seismic Grade,” Proceedings of the
International Seminar on Production and Application of High-Strength
hardening, and on-line self-tempering. Each has Seismic Grade Rebar Containing Vanadium, 2010, pp. 32–43.
unique characteristics in terms of its mechanical 12. S-E. Lundberg, “Optimization of Corrosion Resistance and Mechanical
properties, corrosion resistance, fire resistance and Properties on Quenched and Tempered Rebar,” Scandinavian Journal
earthquake behavior. In turn, national rules do not of Metallurgy, Vol. 31, 2002, pp. 234–240.
follow a single model and influence the technology 13. P. Novak, R. Mala and L. Joska, “Influence of Pre-Rusting on Steel
Corrosion in Concrete,” Cement & Concrete Research, Vol. 31, 2001,
used to produce the bars. It is important that produc- pp. 589–593.
ers, users and regulators understand these concepts in 14. T. Mehmood and W. Al-Shalfan, “Effect of Rebar Production Technology
selecting the most suitable alternatives. on Their Corrosion Behavior in Concrete,” 4th Conference on Uses of
Steel, November 2008, Rosario, Argentina, pp. 13–20.
15. M. Allen, “Quench and Tempering: An Unfamiliar Process in North
America,” AISTech 2010 Conference Proceedings, Vol. II, 2010, pp.
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This paper was presented at AISTech 2016 — The Iron & Steel Technology
AISTech 2010 Conference Proceedings, Vol. II, 2010, pp. 717–726. Conference and Exposition, Pittsburgh, Pa., USA, and published in the
7. www.crm-group.be, visited in September 2013. Conference Proceedings.