Microstructural, Structural, and Thermal Characterization of Annealed Carbon Steels

As is well known, the metallurgical microstructure of carbon steel is formed by ferrite and pearlite after the annealing heat treatment. When the cooling rate increases, the diffusive process is interrupted causing a change in the metallurgical microstructure which will affect steel properties. The aim of this work was to study thermal, structural, and microstructural properties of annealed carbon steel samples with four different carbon contents. Crystalline structure and crystalline quality were studied by the X-ray diffraction technique, where the full width at half maximum analysis showed that as the carbon content increased, the crystalline quality decreased. The metallurgical microstructure morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy. The thermal diffusivity and the heat capacity were determined by the photoacoustic technique and by the thermal relaxation method, respectively. The thermal diffusivity and the thermal conductivity decreased as the carbon content increased. The amplitude signal of photothermal radiometry increased as the carbon content increased, while the phase signal of photothermal radiometry did not show significant differences among studied carbon steel types. The photoacoustic technique represents an important alternative in the steel characterization field.