Heat treatments of steels

Heat treatments are at the heart of many industries, including construction and civil engineering. They are the mainstay for modifying the mechanical properties of metallic materials to meet a wide variety of functional and structural requirements. Heat treatment techniques, including annealing, quenching, tempering and various thermochemical treatments such as carburizing, nitriding and carbonitriding, can bring significant improvements in the hardness, impact strength and wear resistance of metallic materials. TTT (time, temperature, transformation) and TRC (continuous cooling treatment) diagrams, as well as an understanding of the impact of additive elements in steels, are key tools for guiding these transformations and precisely controlling the final properties of materials. In this context, the aim of this article is to provide an overview of these processes and highlight their applications in building and civil engineering.