TITLE: Hardness Tests And Charpy Impact Test.

OBJECTIVE:

1. To compare the hardness of the carbon steel,mild steel and ASSAB steel using three different hardness tests, which are Vickers Hardness Test, Rockwell Hardness Test and Brinell Hardness Test .

2. To determine the resistance of carbon steel and mild steel against sudden impact by Charpy impact test.

1. HARDNESS TESTS Mechanical properties of metals are playing an important in engineering to design structures or components using predetermined materials such that unacceptable levels of deformation and failure will not occur. Hardness is a measure of a materials resistance to localized plastic deformation. It also is one of the important properties to be considered. Hardness can be defined as resistance of material to indentation, which is made by the pressing of a hard steel ball or a pyramidal diamond throughout the experiment. There are three main procedures for the hardness test of steel or alloy:

Vickers Hardness Test

Rockwell Hardness Test

Brinell Hardness Test

PROCEDURE:

VICKERS HARDNESS TEST

In Vickers Hardness Test, an indenter of a right pyramidal diamond on a square base, with an apex angle of 136o between opposite facets are used. The pyramidal diamond is pressed smoothly into a well-prepared flat surface of the test metal under a known load (5kgf to 120kgf), which is maintained for about 15 seconds and then is released. This shape results in the depth of penetration, being one-seven of the indentation size,d. The Vickers Hardness Number, VHN is obtained by: :

d2

d1

Figure 1: Vickers hardness indentation

VHN

Applied load / Surface area of depression

2 P sin(136 o / 2) = d2

= 1.854 P/ d2 (approximate) where P d = applied load (kgf) = (d1+ d2) / 2 (mm)

ROCKWELL HARDNESS TEST

Rockwell Hardness Test is the most common method used to measure hardness because simple to present and require no special skill. Rockwell test differs from other hardness tests such that the depth of the indentation and the size is measured. First, a small initial load called the minor load (10 kgf ) applied to establish a reference position for depth measurement and to penetrate through any surface scale. After that, the additional penetration due to the major load is measured as d. Utilization of a minor load enhances test accuracy. There are two major scales for major load, which are i) ii) Scale B: A steel ball (1.58 mm d) as indenter and 100 kgf load. Scale C: A 120o conical diamond (Brale) as indenter and 150 kgf load.

Each of the Rockwell hardness scale has a most useful value around 100. An increase of one unit of regular Rockwell hardness represents a decrease in penetration of 0.002 mm.. Hence, the Rockwell Hardness, HR is HRC = 100 d /0.002 HRB = 130 d /0.002 where d = depth of the indentation

BRINELL HARDNESS TEST In Brinell Hardness Test, a hardest spherical indenter with suitable diameter, D is forced into the surface of the specimen for 15 seconds. The diameter of the resulting indentation, d is measured by mean of a microscope. Normally, the range is around 2 6 mm. The Brinell Hardness Number, BHN is defined as following:

BHN

Applied load Curve area of indentation

= ________P___________ D/2 [ D - (D - d) ] = __P___ Dh

where

P =

applied load (kgf)

D = diameter of steel ball (mm) d = h = = diameter of resulting indentation (mm) depth of indentation (mm) [ D - (D - d) ]

RESULTS : VICKERS HARDNESS TEST : In the test,the applied load is 100kgf. READING OF VHN 1 2 3 AVERAGE READING OF VHN 1 2 3 AVERAGE d1 345.4 325.3 353.3 314.4 d1 346.9 356.0 351.4 351.4 d2 327.2 316.6 308.8 317.5 d2 342.1 351.4 343.7 345.7 Carbon steel 164 180 169 171 Mild steel 156 148 153 152.3

ROCKWELL HARDNESS TEST : In this test, Scale C is used as reference, which includes the diamond cone indenter and a major load of 150kgf.

REDING OF HRC 1 2 3 AVERAGE

Carbon Steel 26.8 26.5 27.5 26.9

ASSAB Steel 57.9 57.9 57.2 57.7

BRINELL HARDNESS TEST : In this experiment, the diameter of steel ball used is 10mm and 1000 kgf load is used. Specimen Carbon steel d/mm BHN Mild Steel d/mm BHN 1 3.00 138.0 3.35 110.0 2 3.10 129.0 3.35 110.0 3 3.10 129.0 3.25 117.0 Average 3.07 132.0 3.32 112.33

DISCUSSION: Materials with bigger hardness number shows that they have a higher level of hardness. From the hardness tests, the VHN of carbon steel is 171 whereas mild steel is 152.3. The BHN of carbon steel is 132 whereas mild steel is 112.33. Compare these results, it shows that the VHN and BHN values of the carbon steel are bigger than mild steel. In short, carbon steel is harder than mild steel. The hardness increases with an increase of carbon content. This is attributed to the increased influence of carbon on solid solution hardening. The increase in the hardness of metals produced by dispersed atomic sized irregularities is referred to as solid solution hardening. The lattice irregularities and defects are caused by interstitial or substitutions atoms and vacancies in the lattice. Carbon steel has a higher concentration of carbon atoms in composition. The carbon atoms in carbon steel increase resistance to the movement of dislocations. If a resultant impression which has same size on the on the mild steel, a greater force is required to apply on the carbon steels surface. Since the equilibrium amount of carbon in solution in iron of the mild steel at room temperature is about 0.0000001%, which is much lower than carbon steel, the former is less hardness than the later. ASSAB is one type of alloy steel, so the content in the composition is much difference than the other two specimens and it has highest hardness among three specimens. From the experiment conducted, it is clear that for a same type of metal, the actual hardness value is slightly different from the results that were obtained from the experiment. This mainly happens because the metal or the specimen used is not homogenous and its contents may vary differently along the specimen. Besides that, imperfection in metal solids can affect the hardness value.

CONCLUSION : Based on the experiments, ASSAB steel is the hardest metal among three specimens, followed by carbon steel and mild steel.

2. CHARPY IMPACT TEST The Charpy Impact Test is the most commonly used test to determine materials resistance to the impact or sudden fracture where a sharp stress raiser is present. Toughness is a measure of the ability of a material to absorb energy up of fracture. For dynamic (high strain rate) loading conditions and when a notch is present, notch toughness is assessed by using an impact test. Material that experiences very little or no plastic deformation upon fracture is termed brittle whereas material that experiences great deformation upon fracture is termed ductile. The fracture surfaces for brittle material, which has low-energy impact failure, are generally smooth, and in metals have a crystalline appearance. But for ductile material which has high energy fracture, has regions of shear where the fracture surface is inclined about 45o to the tensile stress, and they have in general a rougher, more highly appearance, called fibrous fracture.

PROCEDURE: In this test, the specimens are mild steel and carbon steel (Figure 2).

Figure 2a: Charpy specimen Figure 2

Figure 2b: Specimen placement, direction of hammer

The load is applied as an impact blow from a weighted pendulum hammer that is released from a cocked position at a fixed height so that the initial energy is fixed, that is 280J. The specimen is positioned at the base of the machine. Upon release, a knife-edge mounted on the pendulum strikes and fractures the specimen at the notch, which acts as a point of stress concentration for this high velocity impact blow (Figure 3). After the weighted pendulum hammer has swung to its original position, the specimen is removed from the vice and its fracture surface is observed. The value of the energy absorbed is written down as shown on the Charpy machine.

2mm 30 45

Hammer

Figure 3

RESULT: Specimen Mild Steel Carbon Steel Energy Absorbed / J 242 ( cold )

55 ( hot )

DISCUSSION : The fracture surfaces of the specimens are different from each other. For the mild steel, it is not broken completely. From the observation, it is noticed that a broken piece is still partially attached to each other. This typical fracture is termed as fibrous fracture that is normally obtained in wrought iron. This indicates that high rate of plastic deformation has occurred in the body. The diagram below shows fracture surface of the mild steel.

Mild Steel

As for the carbon steel, the body is completely broken into two separate pieces. This surface appears to be a granular fracture with large shining facets or shiny texture. The diagram below indicates the fracture surface of the carbon steel.

Carbon Steel

Based on the results, it is clear that the ductility of mild steel is higher than carbon steel. The presence of carbon in carbon steel has minimized its ability to absorb energy from the impact. Therefore, carbon steel is a more brittle material compared to mild steel. Besides that, the presence of carbon in some metals will also affects its mechanical properties such as strength and ductility. However, resistance towards a sudden impact will also depend on other factors, such as temperature and the arrangements of atoms in the specimen. It is found that the mode of fracture is greatly affected by temperature. Many metals show a ductile-brittle transition and this effect appears at low temperature in the form of increased yield stress or flow stress. The ductilebrittle transition is also related to the temperature dependence of the measured impact energy absorption. As the temperature is lowered, the impact energy drops drastically over a relatively narrow temperature range, below which the energy has a constant but small value; that is the mode of fracture is brittle. Ductility and toughness of the metal are adversely affected by the absorption of gases like hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen. In certain corrosive situations, the environment may react with the metal to produce stress raising pits and crevices at the surface.

CONCLUSION: Based on the result and discussion, mild steel has a high level of ductility than carbon steel. The resistance of mild steel towards a sudden impact is also higher compared to carbon steel. Mild steel is tougher than carbon steel. REFERENCE: 1. Lab worksheet 2. Fundamental of Material Science And Engineering Fouth Edition(McGraw Hill);William F. Smith.