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Evaluation of the Quality of Reinforcing Bars on the Market in the City of Lubumbashi in DR Congo
This research highlights the evaluation of the chemical and mechanical quality of reinforcing bars on the Lubumbashi market including bars imported from South Africa (FA), Zambia (FZ) and those produced locally (FC ) by the only steel industry, in the former province of Katanga, the iron processing company SOTRAFER, in acronym.
Indeed, this iron production sector is unexplored in the Democratic Republic of Congo while we are in the era of its reconstruction. Consequently, this sector leads us to an almost total dependence on imported iron (steel) because the latter is known throughout the world as the engine of development of modern societies. The samples of the locally produced reinforcing bars (FC) were collected at SOTRAFER at the end of production, while the samples of the FA and FZ reinforcing bars were taken randomly on the Lushois market in a hardware store specializing in sales to avoid errors.
The chemical characterization showed that the three natures of the reinforcing bars are similar with all the elements in the ISO 9001 standards which are Fe, Mn, Cu, Si, C, Cr, Ni, Mo, P, S, Nb, Co, Ti, V and Al except three chemical elements such as Mo, Ni and Cu. This difference is, however, attenuated by the equivalent carbon content. The mechanical characterization showed that all the different materials studied comply with the ISO 6898 standard. The high values of the elastic limit resistances of 16, 12 and 10mm in diameter are observed respectively in the FC samples (436N/mm²); FA (450N/mm²); FC (475 N/mm²). These behaviors are also observed in the plastic phase.