MaterialsEngineeringLabME251Lab

#1:HardnessTesting
SectionMonday12:30pm
StudentsName:RaviRaushan
Instructor:Dr.EylemAsmatulu
ExperimentDate:08/29/2016
DueDate:08/05/2016
Introduction

Hardnessisamaterialsresistanceagainstplasticdeformation.Itisnotaquantitydefined
byanyofthefundamentalunitsofmeasurements,suchaspoundfeetandsecond.Therefore,
hardnesstestsarerelativetotheapparatusonwhichtheyareconductedandthescalewhichwas
used.Therearelotofhardnesstests,themorecommonhardnesstestistheRockwellHardness
tests.Thistestcanbeconductedusingdifferentscales,suchasRockwellhardnessscalesBand
C.Differentscalesareusedbecausenotallmaterialsregisterononeparticularscale.
Theobjectiveofthisexperimentistodeterminethehardnessoftwomaterialsspecimens,
oneofwhichisunknown,andidentifytheunknownmaterial.Thematerialknownisan
Aluminumsample(AluminumAlloy7075T6)
Hardnessisanimportantaspectasthehardnessvaluesinrelevanttothenatureofeach
materialcanbemeasuredandinformationcanbeusedastoolforselectingsuitablematerialsfor
engineeringapplications.Itssimpleandinexpensive.Thehigheramaterialshardnessthebetter
itswearproperties.Hardmaterialscanbeinserted
Theory
Hardnessismeasureoftheresistanceofametaltolocalizedplasticdeformation,usually
byindentation.Itmayalsoreferto:
stiffnessortemper
resistancetoscratching,abrasionorcutting.

Itisalsotheabilityofamaterialtoresistpermanentdeformationunderload.Thegreater
thehardnessofamaterial,thegreateritsresistancetodeformation.

MacrohardnesstestingusingRockwellhardnessmethodisavailableforadirectRockwell
hardnessnumberreadoutandrapidtestingtime.Microhardnessisamethodformeasuringthe
hardnessofamaterialonamicroscopicscale.Aprecisiondiamondsquarebasedpyramid
builder
(Vickershardnessscale)isimpressedintothematerialatloadsfrom10gramsto1000grams.
Theimpressionlength,measuredmicroscopically,andthetesttoadareusedtocalculatea
hardnessvalue.Thehardnessvaluesobtainedareusefulareusefulindicatorsofamaterials
propertiesandexpectedservicebehavior.

RockwellHardness
TheRockwelltestovercomesadvantageoussinceitdoesnotrequirevisual
measurements.TheRockwellhardnesstesteralsodetermineshardnessbymeasuringresistance
topenetration,butintheRockwellcase,theimpressiondepthismeasuredratherthanthe
indentationdiameter.WiththeRockwelltester,thehardnessisindicateddirectlyonthescale
attachedtothemachine.Thisdiallikescaleisreallyadepthgauge,graduatedinspecialunits.
Theindentermayeitherbeasteelball(canbeofdifferentdiameter)oraspherical
diamondtippedconewitha1200angleand0.2mmtipradius,calledaBrale.Thetypeof
indenterandthetestloaddeterminethehardnessscale(A,B,C,etc)

BrinellHardnessTest
Brinell hardness test was invented by J.A. Brinell in 1900 using

a steel ball indenter with a 10 mm diameter. The steel ball is pressed

on a metal surface to provide an impression as demonstrated in figure

1. This impression should not be distorted and must not be too deep
since this might cause too much of plastic deformation, leading to
errors of the hardness values.

Different levels of material hardness result in impression of

various diameters and depths. Therefore, different loads are used for
hardness testing of different materials as listed in table 1. Hard
metals such as steels require a 3,000 kgf load while brass and
Aluminum involve the loads of 2,000 and 1,000 or 500 kgf

respectively. For materials with very high hardness, a tungsten

carbide ball is utilized to avoid the distortion of the ball.

Precautions
Threereadingaretakenonthetestsampleforthescaleinusethereadingsarethen
averagedandsubtractedfromtheknownhardnessforthematerial.Thedifferencebetweenthem
isthecalibration.Itisaddedtoeachhardnessvaluearrivedatduringtheexperimenttogivea
moreaccurateideaofthehardness.Ifmorethanonescaleisused,thisproceduremustberedone
foreachscale.Ifthereisavariation,whichmayberelatedtothedefectsonthesamples,you
needtochangethesampleorthepositionofthesample.
Inordertocompareexperimentalresultstoastandardone,thepercenterrorconceptis
veryuseful.Itisdeterminedusingthefollowingequation:
Percenterror=((StandardvolumeExperimentalvalue)/Standardvalue)
Hardness#(HRB)

Aluminum
Specimen
Unknown
Specimen

1st
Reading

2nd
Reading

3rd
Reading

81.7

84.9

84.2

99.6

99.2

103.0