Production of Seismic‐Resistant Steel From Scrap With Up to 0.6% Copper

Earthquake‐resistant steel grades of characteristic value defined by the ratio (UTS/YS) greater than 1.25 are verified through controlling the proportion of alloying elements in steel. This work illustrates a novel idea to produce earthquake‐resistant steel grade utilizing steel scrap. Different heats were produced containing varying levels of copper, manganese, and silicon, along with deep desulfurization. The heats were hot rolled to diameters of 10, and 16 mm, followed by Tempcore process. JMatPro software was used to predict the formed phases. The chemical composition was determined by optical emission spectrometry. The tensile properties were determined by tensile testing, and bend testing was carried out using a 3D mandrel relative to the rolled diameter.

The results showed that earthquake‐resistant steel is produced using scrap with copper content ranging from 0.55% to 0.58%, silicon content in the range of 0.3% to 0.35%. Via this route, carbon emission is reduced to 25 kg CO ₂ /ton, and the production cost is reduced by up to $10 per ton. This was also associated with a reduction of manganese additions, as every 0.3% of copper can reduce manganese content by 0.2%. Furthermore, the energy required to melt scrap is lower than that needed for DRI by 50 kWh/ton.