SRILANKA INSTITUTE OF

INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

ENGINEERING MATERIALS
(MT1010)

MICROSTRUCTURE EXAMINATION OF
STEEL

Name: M.I Kumarage

Student ID: EN15510686
Group: 01/A
Instructor: Mr. Sabri Adheeb
TITLE
Microstructure Examination of Steel

OBJECTIVE
To observe the constituents and structure of metals and their alloys by means of an optical
microscope.

INTRODUCTION
Metals are crystalline structures. Collection of many small crystal structures are known as grains,
and these grains cannot be observed with naked eyes. The grains are usually observed under a
Microscope. The structures, which can be observed with the magnification range of a
microscope, are known as Microstructures and those that can be seen by the naked eye or low
magnifications are known as Macrostructures. These microstructures of materials or steels are
very important in the engineering field of study.
The specimen surface should be grinded and polished. Afterwards the surface must be etched.
After etching, it should be washed with 90% alcohol, 10% nitric acid and then the steel should
be observed under a microscope. A printout of the microstructure should be taken and the grain
size should be determined. The purpose of the experiment was to observe the microstructure, the
shape, and size of the grains
The study of microstructure is very important in engineering and in real life applications. Defects
in a material determines important properties and performing microstructure examinations helps
to develop relations between the microstructure of the material and its properties by means of an
optical microscope, which is essential in engineering and real life.

THEORY
A crystal structure is a unique arrangement of atoms in a crystal and it is composed of a unit cell,
a set of atoms arranged in a particular way, which is periodically repeated in 3 dimensions on a
lattice. Collection of many small crystal structures are known as grains. These grains should be
observed by microscope. There are three types of microscopes.
Optical microscope: used for resolution down to roughly the wavelength of light.
Electron microscope: used for atomic resolution.
Conventional light microscope: transmits light for clear magnification.

The most commonly used microscope is the conventional light microscope. Microstructures such
as grain size, phases present, chemical homogeneity, distribution of phases and elongated
structures formed by plastic deformation can be obtained from this experiment.
The preparation of a specimen involves mounting, grinding, polishing etching. After etching the
specimen should be washed with alcohol and nitric acid. The atoms at the grain are chemically
more active, and consequently dissolve more readily than those within the grains forming small
grooves. These grooves become visible under microscope view.

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After observing the microstructure to calculate the average grain size, any number of equal lines
should be drawn on the photomicrograph. The number of times the lines cutting the grains
should be counted and the average grain size should be found.

Average grain size = Average Number of grains crossing each line

((Length of the line * No of lines) / 500)

MATERIALS AND APPARATUS

Sample piece of steel
Microscope with 50* and 1000* magnification
Diamond paste (5, 10 microns)
Velvet (for polishing)
Sand paper (for grinding)
Meter ruler

PROCEDURE
Cut steel was obtained.
First the steel was grinded and polished.
Then steel was etched and washed with 90% alcohol and 10% nitric acid.
The washed steel was placed under the microscope and observed.
A printout of microstructure was taken.
5 straight lines of equal length (10 cm) were drawn on the paper.

OBSERVATION
Attached on the next page.

CALCULATIONS
Average grain size = Average Number of grains crossing each line
((Length of the line * No of lines) / 500)

Average grain size = 7.8 / ((10 * 5) / 500)

= 78

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RESULTS
Line No No of Grains per line
1 9
2 9
3 5
4 7
5 9
AVERAGE 7.8

DISCUSSION
The examination of microstructure is a principle mean in metallography. Metallography is the
study of the microstructure of all types of metallic alloys. The metallography of metals and metal
alloys is a hard thing because materials have various chemical compositions and has different
properties. Many important microscopic properties of materials are highly sensitive to the
microstructure. Many important macroscopic properties of metallic materials are highly sensitive
to the microstructure. Critical mechanical properties, like tensile strength or elongation, as well as
other thermal or electrical properties, are directly related to the microstructure. The understanding
of the relationship between the microstructure and macroscopic properties plays a key role in the
development and manufacture of materials and is the ultimate aim of metallography.
The discussion of the each steps are given below:
Mounting is required if the sample steel is too small. There are two types of mounting. Cold and
hot mounting. Cold mounting requires an equipment consisting of a cylinder ring, which serves as
a mold and a flat piece. It takes few hours and hot mounting uses a heating method.
Grinding is done using sandpaper of 1000CW and water. Grinding should be done until the
blemishes are removed. Water is used for removing dusts during grinding, because the dust can
get stick again after grinding if it is dry. Polishing is done in order to get a mirror like surface to
observe the microstructures clearly. Velvet sheet, water and diamond paste are used for polishing.
The microstructure is revealed by a surface treatment. Using chemical reagent in a procedure is
termed as etching. The etching reagents depend on the material used. The speed of the grinder
polisher is 250-300.
From the result of the micrograph, bright and dark regions can be observed. The bright regions
are the grains that are slightly soluble when washed by alcohol and the dark regions are easily
soluble.
Errors that can be occurred during the experiment:
In the polishing stage, the amount of diamond paste, which has to be applied, cannot
be assumed and according to the amount of diamond paste it will take a long time to
polish it.
When drawing the lines on micrograph errors can be occurred in drawing the equal
lengths.
Errors can occur when counting the number of grains cut by the line.
Some small scratches cannot be removed totally.

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Prepared specimens are observed with naked eyes to detect any scratches are still there.

These errors can be corrected by more concentration in the work by the experimenter, and with
the help of an instructor to carry on the experiment.

CONCLUTION
The observed results can be used to find the average grain size and the properties of the metals,
which helps to decide whether the material can be accepted for certain purposes. The experiment
is done by the light emitting microscope or optical microscope. Microstructure can be observed
using many microscopy techniques.

REFERENCES
Disclaimer, L. (2014) Metallurgical testing, Metallography examination,
image analysis, Leco, Metallography, India. Available at:
http://www.tcreng.com/services/metallography-tests.shtml (Accessed: 7
August 2016).
http://www.tcreng.com/services/metallography-tests.shtml
Home (2015) Performing Microstructural examination on prepared test
sample. Available at: https://www.labtesting.com/performing-microstructural-
examination/#.V6bg7jXQWT8 (Accessed: 7 August 2016).
https://www.labtesting.com/performing-microstructural-
examination/#.V6bg7jXQWT8
Diez, D. (2013) Metallography an introduction. Available at:
https://www.leica-microsystems.com/science-lab/metallography-an-
introduction/ (Accessed: 7 August 2016).
https://www.leica-microsystems.com/science-lab/metallography-an-
introduction/