International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET)
Volume 10, Issue 01, January 2019, pp. 1120-1127, Article ID: IJMET_10_01_115
Available online at http://www.iaeme.com/ijmet/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&IType=01
ISSN Print: 0976-6340 and ISSN Online: 0976-6359
© IAEME Publication
Scopus Indexed
PERFORMANCE OF VEGETABLE OILS ON THE
HARDNESS AND MICROSTRUCTURE OF AISI
1045 STEEL QUENCHED
E.A. Pérez R, S. Frye R and J.F. Llano M
Programa de Ingeniería Mecánica, Universidad de Ibagué, Ibagué, Colombia
D.A. Zuleta D.
Departamento de Engenharia Mecânica, Universidade de São Paulo, SP, Brasil
ABSTRACT
Steels for machine manufacturing can be hardened through thermal treatments. In the
quenching treatment is possible to use different substances to improve mechanical
properties, in particular hardness and probably the wear resistance. As quenching media,
the water, water and salt solutions, polymer solutions, vegetable oils and mineral oils are
commonly used. In this work, vegetable oils (vegetable blended, soybean, canola and
sunflower) and mineral oil (10W30) were used as an alternative of quenching media to
study the performance of the hardness and the microstructures obtained. The quenching
treatment was carried out involving heating at temperature of 850º C and keeping inside
electric furnace for 50 minutes to achieve homogeneity in the internal structure. The
quenched was carried out at room temperature using each vegetable and mineral oils.
The results showed that use of vegetable oils is a good alternative as a tempering
substance. The results showed that vegetable oils have a better performance than mineral
oil, as they allow to reach hardness above 40 HRC and generate high strength and
toughness microstructures. Among vegetable oils, Canola oil allowed the highest
hardness and the microstructure with the best presence of bainite.
Key words: Vegetable oils, quenching media, hardness, AISI 1045 steel.
Cite this Article: R, S. E.A. Pérez Frye R, J.F. Llano M and D.A. Zuleta D, Performance
of Vegetable Oils on the Hardness and Microstructure of Aisi 1045 Steel Quenched,
International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 10(01), 2019, pp.1120–
1127
http://www.iaeme.com/IJMET/issues.asp?JType=IJMET&VType=10&Type=01
1. INTRODUCTION
The AISI 1045 steel is a medium carbon steel with a medium level of mechanical strength, widely
used in the construction of parts of machines that require hardness and toughness. However, to
take advantage of the mechanical properties this steel can be hardened through heat treatments.
In particular, the heat treatment of quenching have to aims to harden and increase the strength of
steels. For this, is necesary leave the steel to a temperature slightly higher that of austenization
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R, S. E.A. Pérez Frye R, J.F. Llano M and D.A. Zuleta D
and then rapidly cooling the material by a convenient coolant media such as water, water with
salts, mineral oil, vegetable oil, etc. The cooling media is one of the most important factors during
the quenching treatment. In this sense, has been identified than the salt in water solution agitated,
improve high hardness, while the oil improves intermediate hardness [1,2].
During the cooling of the material, it goes through three different stages. The first stage occurs
when introducing the steel into the liquid the thermal shock generates a layer of steam that
surrounds the material generating the cooling by conduction and radiation through the gaseous
layer. This first stage depends directly on the boiling point and the temperature of the liquid. The
second stage is the transition between the steam and the liquid that surrounds the piece, as the
temperature of the material decreases, the steam separates from the surface and is replaced by
liquid making the cooling faster. In the third stage the steel is at a lower temperature than the
boiling point of the liquid, so that the cooling is done by the liquid and this heat transfer is given
through conduction and convection, this stage is the slowest of the three depending directly on
the thermal conductivity of the liquid and the temperature difference between both [2]. This
sequence of stages are responsible for the mechanical properties finally obtained, which
demonstrates the importance of the selection of the quenching substance.
In this sense, different works have explored the use of quenching media alternatives like
aqueous solutions or mineral and vegetable oils [3-19]. In accordance with Stanczyk [7] the
water as quenching media has high cooling rate and allow to obtain high hardness and residual
stresses with a direct impact on the final properties of the steel. Ndaliman [8], establishes that
quenched steel with water reaches the best properties in strength and hardness, while steel
quenched with palm oil has high tenacity. Other authors have focused their research on analyzing
the behavior of the cooling medium, Souza et al [9] achieve to obtain the cooling curves for
different vegetable oils (soybean, corn, cotton, canola, coconut, sunflower) and its possible use
as cooling media, determining that vegetable oils have a low thermal stability before oxidation,
as well as high kinematic viscosity, unlike petroleum derivatives. In this same line of search for
new substances, Pérez et al [11,12] analyzed the use of machining coolant and vegetable oils
(soybean, sunflower and canola) like quenching media of AISI 1045 quenching on the friction
and wear behavior. The results at both cases showed that the use of machining coolant and
vegetable oils improve high surface hardness. The use of coolant for machining in mixture with
water, allowed to obtain values of hardness lower than those reached with water but this mixture
reduce the coefficient of friction and wear rate. Similar results were obtained with the vegetable
oils studied.
Agboola et al [14] studied the development of a quenching media based in palm kernel oil
and mineral oil (SAE 40) blended. The results showed that the highest cooling rate was obtained
in 100% palm kernel, in the same way the hardness values of medium carbon steel samples
increases with the increasing percentage of palm kernel oil. The tensile strength in the steel
samples quenched in 100% SAE 40 was on average smaller than the obtained for quenched in
100% palm kernel and blends. In order to know the influence of some vegetable oils on the
behavior of the hardness and wear of steel AISI 1045. Adekunle et al [17], worked with Jatropha,
groundnut, melon, kernel and palm oils, purchased in markets in Nigeria and used as a cooling
medium for the quenching of AISI 4137 steel. The analysis of the cooling rates showed that this
has a strong dependence on the viscosity of the oil and the saponification number. Jatropha oil
and groundnut oil had the highest cooling rates, while palm oil and mineral oil had the lowest
rates.
The main objective of this work is to identify the role of the vegetal blended, soybean, canola
and sunflower oils like quenching media and 10W30 mineral oil to improve hardness and changes
at the microstructure of the AISI 1045 steel.
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Performance of Vegetable Oils on the Hardness and Microstructure of Aisi 1045 Steel Quenched
2. EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
2.1. Material and Heat Treatment
The chemical composition of the AISI 1045 steel used in the work is presented in the Table 1.
The samples were machined in disks of 76.2 mm in diameter and 8 mm of thickness (Figure 1).
Each sample was grinding in the surface with SiC abrasive paper from number 180 to 320
obtaining an average roughness media of Ra = 0.15 μm
Table 1. Chemical composition of AISI 1045 steel in commercial condition [11,12]
C
0.47
Mn
0.8
Si
0.3
S
0.025
P
0.025
Fe
Balance
Figure 1. Geometry of AISI 1045 steel samples.
The heat treatments were performed increasing the temperature to 870° C in an electric
furnace and sustained during 50 minutes approximately to ensure uniformity of temperature and
achieve an austenite homogeneous structure, then each disk was quenched. The quenching media
used were vegetal blended, soybean, canola and sunflower commercially available for cooking
food preparations, as well as, 10W30 engine mineral oil.
In all cases, the quenching was development on immersion and manual agitation for one
minutes.
2.2. Hardness and Microstructure identification
The Rockwell C hardness was used to measure the hardness at thirteen points along the diametral
distance of each sample. The hardness was measured in a TIME HBRVU hardness tester. The
measure was realized to the commercial condition steel and after of each quenching case.
The microstructural analysis was accomplished to the commercial condition material and the
each quenched sample. The samples were grinding with SiC abrasive until 1000 grade paper. The
final polishing was done with alumina paste of 1 μm until mirror surface finished. All samples
were etched with a concentred solution of 3% Nital in order to obtain suitable microscopic
examination. The microstructure studied was examined using an OLYMPUS BX51RF
microscope.
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
3.1 Hardness
The figure 2 shows the hardness in HRC scale measured along of diametral distance for each case
considered
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R, S. E.A. Pérez Frye R, J.F. Llano M and D.A. Zuleta D
Figure 2. Hardness along of diametral distance
In the figure is possible to observe that, the higher value of hardness were obtained for the
quenching in water. Likewise, the figure shows that Within the group of oils studied, the canola
oil allowed to reach an average hardness of 50HRC, as well as the oil of vegetable mixtures an
average hardness of 45HRC, followed in its order by the soybean oil with 43 HRC, sunflower oil
with 41 HRC and finally the mineral oil with hardness of 35 HRC
3.2. Microstructures
The microstructures obtained in the metallographic analysis are summarized in the figure 3. In
the Figure 3a is possible to observe the AISI 1045 steel in commercial condition. In this condition,
the microstructure exhibit ferrite and pearlite like principal structures. The Figure 3b shows the
microstructure of the steel quenched in water, in this figure is possible to observe martensite. In
the Figure 3c is observed big boundary edges of Troostite (pearlite fine) and grains with bainite.
The Figure 3d is similar to figure 3c with grains of bainite and pearlite fine at boundary edge. In
the figure 3e is possible to observe big gains of the bainite and martensite and thin boundary
edges of troostite. The figures 3f and 3g shows bainite at grains and troostite, however, the perlite
at boundary edges is thicker in the figure 3g.
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Performance of Vegetable Oils on the Hardness and Microstructure of Aisi 1045 Steel Quenched
Figure 3. Optical microstructures obtained at 500x for AISI 1045 steel quenched. (a) Commercial
condition. (b) quenched in water (c) quenched in vegetable blend oil (d) quenched in soybean oil (e)
quenched in canola oil (f) quenched in sunflower oil and (g) quenched in 10W30 mineral oil.
In this study the AISI 1045 was quenched in various quenching media. The results shows that
as expected the highest average hardness value was obtained for steel quenched in water. The
vegetable oils allowed the obtaining of hardness greater than 40 HRC, which indicates that they
can be considered as high performance substances for quenching of medium carbon steels.
Likewise, it is important to note that within vegetable oils, the canola oil is the one that allowed
the ighest hardness value (50 HRC). A possible justification for this result is that, according to
Garcia et al [20], the canola oil has a higher thermal conductivity compared to the other vegetable
oils used in this work (Table 2).
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R, S. E.A. Pérez Frye R, J.F. Llano M and D.A. Zuleta D
Table 2. Thermal conductivity of vegetable oil [20].
In addition, it is important to observe that the vegetable blended oil, the soybean and
sunflower oils allowed to obtain hardness values very close to each other, being 45 HRC in the
case of vegetable mixture oil, 43 HRC in soybean oil and of 41 HRC in the case of sunflower oil.
This result of near hardness in the range of 41-45 HRC obtained can be justified from the
viscosity. The figure 4 shows the cinematic viscosity of the vegetable oils and mineral oil studied.
The vegetable oils have lower viscosity with respect to mineral oil, although similar between
them. The lower viscosity favors the cooling on the surface and the rapid appearance of the
nucleate boiling.
Figure 4. Viscosity of vegetable and mineral oils
In accordance with Pranesh [21] the boiling temperature of vegetable oil is above the boiling
temperature of most petroleum quenchant oils provide an increased transition temperature
between nucleate boiling and convection. These conditions associated with heat transfer and
cooling capacity make the use of oils inadequate for obtaining martensite. The use of intermediate
cooling speeds favors the obtaining of pearlite and bainite structures.
All of the above confirms the great performance of vegetable oils when they are used as
tempering media of AISI 1045 steel, thus achieving hardness above 40 HRC and high tenacity
microstructures such as troostite and bainite.
4. CONCLUSION
The experimental results allowed to analyze the performance of vegetable oils (Vegetable
blended, Soybean, Canola and Sunflower), as well as, the mineral oil 10W30 as quenching media
on the hardness and microstructure of the AISI 1045 steel. In the work was demonstrated that the
use of vegetable oils as hardening substances is an alternative of high importance since with these
it is possible to obtain hardness above 40 HRC and structures of high toughness. Likewise, within
vegetable oils it is demonstrated that Canola oil generated greater hardness (50 HRC) and a welldefined bainite microstructure.
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Performance of Vegetable Oils on the Hardness and Microstructure of Aisi 1045 Steel Quenched
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors recognizes the Universidad de Ibagué (Colombia) for the technical and financial
support through of research project No. 17-460-INT.
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