What will happen when a very hot metal is cooled down immediatelly?

Answer 1

Tremendous question. I am a pharmacist and a chemist but if you want an expert opinion I would call my local state university and talk with either a professor or graduate student in Metalurgy. This is a remarkable science where the properties of thousands of metal elements and metal alloys are studied. Of course there is Copper, Iron, Nickle, Aluminum. There are thousands of alloys of just aluminum. Aerospace engineers categorize these alloys by using numbers. Each hundred or thousand tips the engineer of the unique properties of that family of alloys. There are
zillions of alloys of steel. Some have atoms of lithium, or Beryllium, some use Nickle (like stainless steel). The arrangement of the individual metal atoms account for the special properties of the alloy. Did you know that 18 karat gold and 14 Karat Gold and 10 karat Gold are different alloys of Gold. 18 karat gold is 18 parts gold/out of 24 total parts. 10 karat gold has only 10/24 pure gold. One of my favorite alloys is Woods metal. It is the alloy that makes fire sprinklers work. You know that water boils at 212 degrees F. Woods metal is like a cork in a water pipe. If the temperature gets to around 179 degrees F the woods metal
melts allowing the water to flow out of the water pipe
and put out the fire.
To specifically answer your question cooling down certain types of steel tempers the steel giving it a special hardness.
Other metals and alloys may crack. Some metals are too
reactive like Lithium, Sodium, Potassium. It they are put in water they quickly catch on fire and "ski" rapidly on the surface of the water until they are completely dissolved.
This is a very heat producing reaction. Chemists use the word "exothermic". I hope you have had as much fun reading this as I have had sharing it with you! Best regards!

Answer 2

It depends on the chemistry of the steel, mild steel for instance is no problem it does get hard losing malibility and elasticity increasing carbon %age. Carbon steels x1070 x1125 grades do snap if cool down to Quickly . That why I use oil to cool heated shafts pins cheisels need procision cooling and heat and correct methods to prevent breaking

Answer 3

It depends on the metal. All I know is what happens to steel. The carbon atoms in the steel will become fused within the iron atoms making the steel harder. I think that's it anyway. Quick cooling is also called "hardening". After hardening the steel would be tempered.

Answer 4

It depends on the metal. Certain metals will shatter, others will break along a plane. Some metals just cool down. Most people will say break or shatter, but thats not necessarily true.

Answer 5

i think this the matter of expansion and contraction when you heat a metal it will expand and when you cool it down it will contract so the metals luike stones when you cool it immediatelly it will break but for iron it will shrink

Answer 6

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