Technical Notes - Change in Yield Strength During Aging in Iron

THE change in mechanical properties accompanying quench aging of carbon in a iron has been known for a number of years. Since the amount of carbon involved is rather small, however, no measurements could be made to correlate the property change with the state of precipitation of the carbide. Indeed, until a few years ago it was not plain which property might be used to indicate the state of the progress of precipitation. Some years ago the internal friction of solid solutions of carbon in a iron was demonstrated, and the use of this phenomenon to ascertain the amount of carbon in solid solution at any given time was developed. Shortly afterward the author made a number of measurements in which changes in electrical resistance, thermoelectric emf, and hardness were determined simultaneously with the internal friction (and hence with the precipitation) ? A little later Dijkstra and Wert measured the change in magnetic coercive force accompanying aging.' The present work was undertaken to inquire into the changes in yield strength accompanying aging. The work was done on specimens made of Puron. These specimens were 0.05 in. in diam and about 6 in. long. Though specimens of this small size are not ideal for yield strength measurements, such specimens are desirable for internal friction meas-