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-----Can this iron material be used in a structural application?
March 19, 2013
Q. Dear Sir,
Please suggest below IRON material equivalent grade in ISO standard Or ANSI.
C 3.92
Si 1.95
Mn 0.77
S 0.09
P 0.12
Cr 0.25
Ni <0.10
Mo <0.05
Cu 0.53
Is it suitable for structure type application?
- Bangalore, Karnataka, India
A. Hi Borappa. This sounds approximately like a gray cast iron per ASTM A48 [affil. link]. But whether the material actually qualifies to A48 is something you would have to carefully check.
In the old days, before the availability of low carbon steel, cast iron was used for bridges, but there were a few notorious disasters when design errors put this non-malleable material into tension and it failed. It is still possible to design a safe cast iron "arch bridge" where all the material is in compression, but it is rarely done (if at all) since steel bridges are more practical.
But your proposition is worded very weirdly and abstractly 🙂
Did you just stumble upon a warehouse full of undocumented cast iron beams and are trying to determine if it qualifies to any standard and for any purpose? I can't otherwise understand how else this very strange question arose unless it was your homework in engineering school, designed to make you think 🙂
Regards,
Ted Mooney, P.E.
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