COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING & ARCHITECTURE
UCD SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL & MATERIALS ENGINEERING
Module Code MEEN40160
Module Title Materials Thermo & Kinetics
Module Coordinator Dr. David Browne
Student Last Name
Student Firstname
Student Number
Date of Submission 20th November 2022
I declare that the material
contained in this project is
the end result of my own
work and that due
acknowledgment has been
given in the bibliography to
ALL sources, be they printed,
electronic or personal
, 1. Aims and objectives
The main objective of the assignment and the report is to analyse the thermal properties of an alloy
of iron and carbon. The thermal properties include the different phases at different temperatures and
compositions up to a 6.5% carbon composition. These properties correspond to the range in which
the majority of steel alloys are manufactured. Other properties that will be analysed are the
magnetism of the different phases and how magnetism is or is not related to composition and
temperature. Gibbs free energy for different phases will also be studied to verify their relation with
temperature and composition as it was done in the first assignment.
Manganese will also be added to the steel alloy to see how it influences the properties and phases of
the alloy. A 0.15% carbon weight alloy will be used as a standard and its properties (like Gibbs energy)
will be studied with and without manganese (as well as the stable phases). The lever rule will also be
studied using this alloy.
Finally, we will also understand what the activities of the components are and how they affect and
change in an alloy. An alloy of aluminium and 4% copper will be used to achieve this.
2. Introduction
Some concepts need to be introduced to understand the experiment that will be carried out in this
assignment.
First of all, we have to talk about the magnetism in steel alloys. This phenomenon occurs because
some steels are mostly made up of ferromagnetic materials. Ferromagnetisms appears in elements
such as iron because their outer electron shells in the d-orbitals are partially filled. The motion of the
electrons in these orbitals produce a magnetic field. Normally, these magnetic fields will point in all
directions (cancelling out) but it just happens that, once they are introduced to a magnetic field, all
the electrons (and therefore the magnetic fields) will point in a single direction. [1]
Ternary diagrams will be used to describe the iron manganese carbon alloy. To read these, only two
axis are labelled. In our case we will label carbon and manganese. The phases will be studied at a given
temperature. The rest of the composition that is not missing at some point will correspond to iron.
The isopleth will also be displayed for the ternary alloy. An isopleth is a line on a map that connects
points with an equal value.
The lever rule also will be used to verify the composition of each phase when there is a mixture of
phases. The lever rule is a formula that is used with this purpose. The formula is the following:
𝐶𝛼 − 𝐶0
𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝐿 =
𝐶𝛼 − 𝐶𝐿
Finally, we have already mentioned the activities of the components in an alloy. This is …
3. Computational Software and Methods
To achieve the objectives stated in section 1, a computational method was run to simulate the
performance of the alloy. The software used for this purpose was ThermoCalc. This program includes
a database with a series of alloys, including the aluminium copper and the iron carbon manganese
ones we are interested in. The database was created from experimental data.
The methodology used for consisted on selecting the phase diagram binary equilibrium configuration
in Thermocalc, which redirected us to a binary calculator in which we can select any two elements
included in the database. Iron was selected as the main component of the alloy (for the reasons
explained earlier). After that, the phase diagram is selected as the calculation type. Stable phases are
plot only and the result is given in Figure 1.
UCD SCHOOL OF MECHANICAL & MATERIALS ENGINEERING
Module Code MEEN40160
Module Title Materials Thermo & Kinetics
Module Coordinator Dr. David Browne
Student Last Name
Student Firstname
Student Number
Date of Submission 20th November 2022
I declare that the material
contained in this project is
the end result of my own
work and that due
acknowledgment has been
given in the bibliography to
ALL sources, be they printed,
electronic or personal
, 1. Aims and objectives
The main objective of the assignment and the report is to analyse the thermal properties of an alloy
of iron and carbon. The thermal properties include the different phases at different temperatures and
compositions up to a 6.5% carbon composition. These properties correspond to the range in which
the majority of steel alloys are manufactured. Other properties that will be analysed are the
magnetism of the different phases and how magnetism is or is not related to composition and
temperature. Gibbs free energy for different phases will also be studied to verify their relation with
temperature and composition as it was done in the first assignment.
Manganese will also be added to the steel alloy to see how it influences the properties and phases of
the alloy. A 0.15% carbon weight alloy will be used as a standard and its properties (like Gibbs energy)
will be studied with and without manganese (as well as the stable phases). The lever rule will also be
studied using this alloy.
Finally, we will also understand what the activities of the components are and how they affect and
change in an alloy. An alloy of aluminium and 4% copper will be used to achieve this.
2. Introduction
Some concepts need to be introduced to understand the experiment that will be carried out in this
assignment.
First of all, we have to talk about the magnetism in steel alloys. This phenomenon occurs because
some steels are mostly made up of ferromagnetic materials. Ferromagnetisms appears in elements
such as iron because their outer electron shells in the d-orbitals are partially filled. The motion of the
electrons in these orbitals produce a magnetic field. Normally, these magnetic fields will point in all
directions (cancelling out) but it just happens that, once they are introduced to a magnetic field, all
the electrons (and therefore the magnetic fields) will point in a single direction. [1]
Ternary diagrams will be used to describe the iron manganese carbon alloy. To read these, only two
axis are labelled. In our case we will label carbon and manganese. The phases will be studied at a given
temperature. The rest of the composition that is not missing at some point will correspond to iron.
The isopleth will also be displayed for the ternary alloy. An isopleth is a line on a map that connects
points with an equal value.
The lever rule also will be used to verify the composition of each phase when there is a mixture of
phases. The lever rule is a formula that is used with this purpose. The formula is the following:
𝐶𝛼 − 𝐶0
𝐶𝑜𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝐿 =
𝐶𝛼 − 𝐶𝐿
Finally, we have already mentioned the activities of the components in an alloy. This is …
3. Computational Software and Methods
To achieve the objectives stated in section 1, a computational method was run to simulate the
performance of the alloy. The software used for this purpose was ThermoCalc. This program includes
a database with a series of alloys, including the aluminium copper and the iron carbon manganese
ones we are interested in. The database was created from experimental data.
The methodology used for consisted on selecting the phase diagram binary equilibrium configuration
in Thermocalc, which redirected us to a binary calculator in which we can select any two elements
included in the database. Iron was selected as the main component of the alloy (for the reasons
explained earlier). After that, the phase diagram is selected as the calculation type. Stable phases are
plot only and the result is given in Figure 1.
