International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)

ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-8 Issue-3, February 2019

Study of Mechanical Properties and Change in

Microstructure of Alloy Steel EN24 under
various Heat Treatment Process.
Deepak Sharma, Atul Pandey
Abstract: The alloy steel EN24 as a base metal before heat After that compare these properties with different treatment
treatment has limited applications because of its low values of conditions, the treatment conditions are mainly stress
tensile properties. In order to enhanced its mechanical properties, relieving, normalizing and hardened & tempered.
hardness, its machinability up to such an extent that it can be used
➢ Mechanical properties are :
as: gears, connecting rods, swivel arms, transmission parts,
machine tool parts, dies, cylinders, cropping blades , aero planes • Tensile strength (U.T.S)
& aerospace systems the alloy steel EN24 have to be heat treated • % Elongation
with different processes. The above problems of alloy steel En24 is • Yield load
improved in this project by applying three heat treatment • Breaking load
processes i.e. stress relieving, normalizing and hardened &
tempered for each specimens and testing each specimens for their • Yield stress
tensile properties, chemical composition, hardness & ➢ Chemical composition test is done for base metal
microstructures. The graphs and their comparative analysis are EN24 (before heat treatment) and hardened &
done in the end. tempered specimens of EN24 to depict the
Keywords: Chemical composition, EN24, Hardness Testing, variations in the % of Carbon (c), Chromium (Cr),
Heat Treatment, Mechanical Properties & Microstructure study.
Copper (Cu), Iron (Fe), & Manganese (Mn).
➢ Hardness test is done for before and after heat treated
I. INTRODUCTION
specimens of EN24.
In physical metallurgy, the study of mechanical properties ➢ Microstructure test result is done for before and after
and influence of heat treatment on microstructures is always heat treated specimens of EN24.
been a topic of research [1-3]. To find newer steel with Then these mechanical properties, chemical composition
enhanced mechanical properties, hardness within the cost elements variations, hardness variations are plotted
range is always remain in Industrial demand with widespread graphically & microstructure`s test results are analyzed.
application zones. EN24 comes in the family of alloy steels
which inherently have high tensile properties, is of high III. METHODOLOGY/EXPERIMENTAL
quality & is very popular that can be machined without PROCEDURE
difficulty in the "T" condition. For the manufacturing of
heavy duty axles and shafts and stud EN24T is very much To analyze the effect of heat treatment on the alloy steel
appropriate. Its wear resistance can further be increased by EN24, the exploration was done out in the following steps:-
induction or nitride processes which raise its surface hardness • Preparation of the specimen from 0.36% carbon
in the range of 58-60 HRC. EN24T is very useful in offshore ingot.
applications as it retain very good impact values at low • Heat treating the specimens.
temperatures. The larger cross section of part manufactured • Color detection in the specimen after heat treatment.
by EN24T can exposed to future treatment by quenching and • Mechanical properties and chemical properties study.
tempering, but this result in fall out of mechanical properties
• Microstructure study.
from surface to core. To overcome this we annealed and later
perform quenching/cooling that helps us to strengthen 3.1 Specimen Preparation
mechanical properties towards the core. Specimen is prepared by as per American Society for
Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards and has the
II. OBJECTIVE OF WORK following specification:-
(i) Gauge length-55 mm
The objective of this work is to determine the mechanical (ii)Gauge diameter- 10 mm
properties, chemical composition, hardness & (iii)Total length- 175 mm
microstructures analysis of alloy steel EN24 before & after (iv) Diameter of Grip - 18 mm
heat treatment processes. This specimen is subjected to testing for mechanical
properties and heat treatment.
Manuscript published on 28 February 2019. 3.2 Heat Treatment
* Correspondence Author (s) Heat treatment is a process in which we controlled heating
Deepak Sharma*, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical and cooling of materials to yield changes in their
Engineering, GLA University, Mathura (U.P), India.
Atul Pandey, Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical
microstructures, strength, machinability.
Engineering, N.I.E.T, Greater Noida (U.P), India.

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CC-BY-NC-ND license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Published By:
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Retrieval Number C5894028319/19©BEIESP and Sciences Publication (BEIESP)
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 Study of Mechanical Properties and Change in Microstructure of Alloy Steel EN24 under various Heat
Treatment Process.
Alloy steels EN24 are primarily heat treated to improve its 3.4.1 Hardness Testing: The heat treated specimens
mechanical properties like tensile strength, percentage hardness was measured by means of Rockwell hardness
elongation and improving its hardness. tester.
It basically had a ferrite and bainite type of microstructures, 3.4.2 Ultimate Tensile Strength Testing: Specimens
but by using different heat treatment processes the structure gone through different heat treatment processes were then
changes from ferrite, bainite to tempered martensite. The tested on Universal Testing Machine to get comparative
process adopted in this study is as follows:- analysis of different mechanical properties like % elongation,
3.2.1 Normalizing: In this process the specimen was Ultimate Tensile Strength, yield Strength, breaking load etc.
heated in a coal based furnace up to temperature of 900°C,
then it is held at that temperature for 2 hours and in the last it 3.4.3 Chemical Composition Testing: In this process the
is taken out, air cooled in the ordinary environment. specimen was cut into small pieces and then put inside the
spectrometer, the holding of the specimen inside it is done by
3.2.2 Hardening & Tempering Process : Hardening and creating a vacuum & then the specimen is press by the
Tempering process is also called hardening process in which hydraulic driven arm.
the specimen is heated up to a temperature of 900°C, then it is
held at that temperature for 2 hours, after that it is oil 3.5 Microstructure study.
quenched so that the temperature drops up to range of 50-65 Microstructure is basically used to describe the appearance of
°C. the material or we can say that positioning of phases and
After the above process, tempering is done, in which defects. Analysis of microstructure is divided into following
specimen is heated at a temperature of 600 °C, then their it is sequential steps. Firstly a layer of approximate 4 mm is sliced
held for 1 hour, soaking time is ½ hour and in the last the then it is further prepared by using Bakelite powder then
specimen is cool in a natural air at a rate of 100 °C / hour. polished by SiC paper (emery paper) and then by 1 μm cloth
coated with diamond paste and lastly the samples were etched
3.2.3 Stress Relieving Process: It is a process that helps to by using 2% natal (2% conc. Nitric acid in methanol
reduce undesirable residual stresses that results from solution).
processes such as hot forging, cold forming [1]. For EN24
specimen, the recommended temperature range was IV. RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS
650-670°C for a soaking time span of 2 hours, after this the
4.1 Mechanical Properties:
furnace was switched off and the specimen was cooled inside
The mechanical properties measured by using Universal
the furnace itself. The furnace used in this process was
testing machine of alloy steel EN24 before and after heat
electric furnace.
treatment processes are given in Table 1 lists the mechanical
properties viz. Breaking load, Tensile strength, % Elongation,
3.3 Color detection in the specimen after heat
Hardness etc. of EN24 respectively.
Proce Elongate TS YS Elongati RA
Table 1: Mechanical properties of EN24
ss d (N/mm (N/mm on
2) 2)
Length (%) (%) Process Dia Area Gauge BL YL
(mm) (mm) (mm2) length (N) (N)
BHT 61.26 665.61 458.60 22.52 64
(mm)
SR 62.10 687.90 509.55 24.20 66.9
BHT 10 78.50 50 52250 36000
Norm 51.40 1200.6 ------ 2.80 ----
al- 4 SR 10 78.50 50 54000 40000
izing Normalizing 10 78.50 50 94250 -----
H&T 50.32 1447.5 ------ 0.64 -----
H&T 9.95 77.72 50.00 112500 ------
0
treatment.
After using various heat treatment processes, the color of * B H T – Before heat treatment
the specimen goes on changing. The EN24 before heat * S R - stress relieving process
treatment slightly has a silver like color, it changes into bluish * H & T - Hardened & Tempered
color when it is normalized, when it is hardened & tempered * B L - Breaking load
it changes into black color, and by stress relieving process it * Y L - Yield load
becomes slightly reddish. * T S - Tensile strength
* Y S - Yield stress
3.4 Mechanical properties and chemical composition
study.
Specimen`s analysis for mechanical properties, hardness
and chemical composition was carried out in Bhartiya testing
lab situated in Faridabad.
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 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-8 Issue-3, February 2019

NOTE: From the above table we are seeing that for

normalizing and hardened & tempering process the column
of yield load, yield stress & reduction in area are vacant; it is
basically because the samples broke at the gauge mark.

4.2 Hardness measurement:

Table 2 shows the results of hardness test in (Rockwell
Hardness ‘B’ & ‘C’ scale) for before & after heat treated
samples of EN24.
The hardness increases as it goes from stress relieving
process to normalizing & then to hardened & tempered
process. It happens due to microstructure transformation of
ferrite & bainite to martensite & then to tempered martensite.

Table 2: Hardness test results of EN24

TREATMENT HARDNESS Fig 1. Microstructure of base metal EN24
(before heat treatment)
Before Heat treatment (B H T) 91.5 HRB
Stress Relieving 93.0 HRB
Normalizing 39.2 HRC
Hardened & Tempered 49.2 HRC

4.3 Chemical composition test result.

Chemical composition test was done on spectrometer for
base metal EN24 (before Heat treatment) and for Hardened &
tempered EN24 to detect the variation in the composition
elements before and after heat Treatment. Table 3 shows the
variation of the composition elements for both the tested
specimens.
Fig 2. Microstructure of stress relieved EN24
Table 3: Chemical composition test result for before &
after heat treated EN24.

Process Elements (All in %)

C Si Mn Cr Ni Mo V
BHT
0.365 0.295 0.551 1.040 1.440 0.208 0.018
H&T
0.400 0.298 0.583 1.100 1.410 0.217 0.019

Process Elements (All in %)

Cu Al S P B Pb Fe
BHT Fig 3. Microstructure of normalized EN24
0.102 0.033 0.030 0.035 0.001 0.005 95.8

H&T
0.148 0.008 0.023 0.026 0.001 0.005 95.7

* B H T- Before Heat treatment

* H & T- Hardened & tempered

4.4 Microstructure Test result

In Microstructure test we basically defined the structures
of the specimens of alloy steel EN24 before & after heat
treatment.
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 Study of Mechanical Properties and Change in Microstructure of Alloy Steel EN24 under various Heat
Treatment Process.

(b)
Fig 5 (a & b). Tensile strength and Breaking load
Fig 4. Microstructure of hardened & tempered EN24 variation due to different heat treatment processes

The microstructure of EN24 before heat treatment is

basically consists of ferrite & bainite. After different
treatments there is a change in matrix/phase structure. These
cause changes in the mechanical properties of alloy steel
EN24. The microstructures after different types of treatments
of EN24 are shown in figure 1, 2, 3 & 4.
After stress relieving treatment, the microstructure of
EN24 is quite similar to the before one specimen because it
consists of ferrite & bainite, but tensile strength, yield stress,
% elongation & hardness properties are improved.
But after air cooling or normalizing, the microstructures
gets envelope of martensite with bainite & little bit of ferrite,
which results in the high increase in hardness value with
tensile strength. In pearlite matrix graphite nodules and
ferritic molecules have their fixed position and after
tempering and hardening this phase modified to martensite so (a)
results in increase in strength and ductility caused by internal
stress relieving [15].

4.5 Graphs
4.5.1 Variation of mechanical properties with respect to
different heat treatment processes.

(b)
Fig 6 (a & b). % elongation variation and Yield stress
variation due to different heat treatment processes.

(a)

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 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-8 Issue-3, February 2019

(a)
Fig 7. Yield load variation due to different heat
treatment processes.
NOTE:- In the above figures 6 & 7, the normalized and
hardened & tempered specimens are not being plotted on the
basis of yield stress & yield load because the specimens
broke at the gauge mark due to high hardness.

(b)
Fig 9 (a & b). Variation of Cr and Cu percentages for
before and Hardened & Tempered specimens.

(a)

(a)

(b)
Fig 8 (a & b). Variation of hardness and Carbon % with
respect to different heat treatment processes.

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 Study of Mechanical Properties and Change in Microstructure of Alloy Steel EN24 under various Heat
Treatment Process.
➢ The tensile strength and hardness values were more
for the hardened & tempered specimens but its %
elongation was found least in compare with other
heat treatment processes.
➢ The failure load and tensile strength of the specimen
after normalizing were found greater than base
metal (before heat treatment) and stress relieved
samples but less than hardened and tempered
samples.
➢ The microstructure of EN24 before heat treatment is
basically consists of ferrite & bainite. After
different treatments there is a change in
(b)
matrix/phase structure. These cause changes in the
Fig 10 (a & b). Variation Mn & Fe percentage for
before and Hardened & Tempered specimens. mechanical properties of alloy steel EN24. After
stress relieving treatment, the microstructure of
4.5.2 Mechanical properties variation with different EN24 is quite similar to the before one specimen
treatment conditions: When comparing the tensile strength because it consists of ferrite & bainite, but tensile
of alloy steel EN24 specimen under the influence of various strength, yield stress, % elongation & hardness
heat treatment, small changes were observed. The Load at properties are improved.
failure and ultimate tensile strength of normalized sample But after air cooling or normalizing, the
were found more than the specimen without heat treatment microstructures gets envelope of martensite with
and it was also observed that U.T.S and failure point is less
bainite & little bit of ferrite, which results in the high
than those samples which were hardened and tempered. From
increase in hardness value with tensile strength.
Fig 3, 4 & 5, we can conclude that tempered samples has
higher U.T.S but less ductility. Fig 4 shows that stress
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 International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT)
ISSN: 2249-8958 (Online), Volume-8 Issue-3, February 2019

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AUTHORS PROFILE
Deepak Sharma is a research scholar of Delhi
Technological University, Delhi and has done Master of
Technology & Bachelor of Technology from National
University. He has written more than 4 Papers in reputed
National & International Journals.

Atul Pandey has done Master of Technology & Bachelor

of Technology from National University. He has written
more than 8 Papers in reputed National & International
Journals.

Published By:
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Journal Website: www.ijeat.org 306 © Copyright: All rights reserved.