Objective

This experiment is to study the microstructure of steel by conducting

metallurgical observation using an optical microscope and observing the
crystalline microstructure of a rail sample that was taken from the low rail on
a curved railway track.

Introduction
Microscopic examination with digital imaging microstructure analysis is
conducted by microscopic examination, a process that studies the structure
of materials under magnification. The properties of a material determine how
it will perform under a given application and these properties are dependent
on the materials structure. Industrial processes or treatments such as
casting, welding and heat treating are often applied to metals to prepare
them for particular applications and to improve their characteristics and
properties. A microscopic examination may be conducted to evaluate the
effects of a process on material using optical microscopy at low or high
magnifications.

Steel is an alloy of iron and other elements mainly carbon, that is widely
used in construction and other applications due to its high tensile strength
and low cost. Its base metal is iron, which is able to take on two crystalline
forms body centred cubic (BCC) and face centred cubic (FCC) depending on
its temperature. In the steel forming process, the steel structure undergoes
several phases, primarily ferrite and cementite that will be observed and
discussed throughout this report.

Equipment
Optical microscope, camera, polished and itched steel samples

Procedures
The steel crystalline microstructure sample is examined under different
magnifications:
Microscope components:
Ocular lens: Cylinder containing two or more lens, function to focus
image for the eyes
Objective: Usually in a cylinder housing containing a glass single or
multi-element compound lens.
Focus knobs: To move the stage up and down with separate
adjustment for coarse and fine focusing. Enable the microscope to
adjust to specimens of different thickness.
Light source: Source of light to direct images of specimen into the
eyes.
Stage: Support the specimen being viewed. Focusing starts at lower
magnification in order to centre the specimen. At higher magnification
requires the stage to be moved higher vertically to refocus.

Results
Figure 1 shows the steel microstructure magnified under magnification plan
40 under a microscope.

Discussion
From Figure 1, it is observed that there are regions of differing brightness
lining forming multiple dark and light layers. These layers are called lamella
structure, which is also labelled as pearlite. The dark region in Figure 1 is
cementite and the lighter area is ferrite. Figure 1: Picture of steel microstructure
 Element (w.t. %) Rail Sample
Carbon 0.45
Silicon 0.07
Manganese 0.78
Sulphur 0.02
Phosphorus 0.07
Cr 0.01
Mo < 0.01

Table above shows the element composition of the

specimen; consisting 0.45% of carbon and 0.78% of
manganese. By drawing a vertical line from x = 0.45 on the iron-
carbon phase diagram, the steel forming phases could be
explained in more details (The iron-carbon phase diagram is plotted in
appendix).

As carbon composes 0.45% of the element, from the phase diagram it is said
that the steel portion of the metastable Fe-C phase diagram exists as
hypoeutectoid state (0 < wt. % C < 0.68 wt. %). Alloys formed at this state
contain proeutectoid ferrite (formed above the eutectoid temperature) plus
the eutectoid perlite that contain eutectoid ferrite and cementite that is seen
in Figure 1. As discussed earlier, the dark region is cementite and the bright
region is ferrite. Cementite is a hard and brittle substance, which has the
ability in influencing on the properties of steels. Ferrite on the other has a
body centre cubic structure and can hold very little carbon.

At temperature above 1538 C , the specimen exists as liquid state. If it is

let to cool just above 1493 C , the specimen is in -ferrite liquid

solution. At this stage, the specimen is very stable at high temperature

typically above 1394 C . At temperature below 1493 C , it contains

interstitial solid solution of carbon in -iron. Austenite has a FCC crystal

structure with carbon solubility as high as 2.06% at about 1147 C . As the

specimen is let to cool further at about 800 C , + coexists at this

phase, indicating there are austenite plus ferrite. At temperature below 723
C , ferrite and cementite are both formed at this region.

Conclusion
At cooling of steel below 0.8% carbon, the steel solidifies and forms

austenite. At temperature below 910 C , grains of ferrite start to form. As

more grains of ferrite formed, the remaining austenite becomes richer in

carbon. At about 723 C the remaining austenite, which now contains

below 0.8% carbon changes to pearlite. The resulting structure is a mixture

of ferrite and pearlite.