Low-cost alloy design for structural steels: a new approach

Major international structural steel standards generally offer grades with a range of yield strengths and associated levels of toughness for use according to the demands of the intended application, show strength/toughness up to 16 mm in EN10025-2:2004. Carbon and manganese have historically been the basic building blocks of structural steels. Carbon is generally regarded as the single most important element because, at minimum cost, it adds hardness, strength and hardenability to the range of steels of interest. However, it also tends to make steels more brittle and less weldable. In steelmaking terms it costs money to reduce carbon significantly and this approach is therefore only used for classes of steel where weldability is of critical importance.