Heaven’s Light is Our Guide

Rajshahi University of Engineering & Technology

Department of Glass & Ceramic Engineering

Experiment Number: 04
Name of Experiment: Study of mechanical properties of glass

Course Title: Glass properties Submitted By

Sessional Name: Md.Mohibul Alam
Course No: GCE3124 Roll:1606023
Date of Exp: 27/1/20 rd
Class:3 Year (Even semester)
Date of Sub: 05/2/20 Session: 2016-17
Number of the experiment: 03
Name of the experiment: Study of mechanical properties of glass

Objectives:
1. To know about different mechanical properties of glass
2. To know how to measure glass strength and toughness
3. To know method of improving glass strength
4. To know how to measure microhardness and its compositional
dependency

Introduction: Applied stress at the point of failure is termed the strength. A

measurement of strength generally consists of applying an increasing magnitude
of stress in a defined-geometry specimen until failure occurs. Units of strength
are the same as those of stress, e.g., dyn/cm2 in cgs, MPa in SI, and psi in
English systems.
It is a common experience that glass products break readily when subjected to
mechanical or thermal shock
01. Measurement of Glass Strength and Toughness
Strength of glass is traditionally measured by using a three-point or four-point
beam bending method in a universal mechanical tester (see ASTM C158-95).
The maximum stress at the point of failure is calculated and reported as the
modulus of rupture (MOR). It is necessary to use a large sample, generally not
less than 20 specimens (maybe more), and to obtain the mean strength, the
standard deviation, and (for comfort purposes) the lowest value observed. In a
three-point bend strength measurement, the maximum stress is obtained below
the central peg on the convex side. On the other hand, in a four-point bend test,
the region within the inner pegs is subjected to the maximum stress. Since the
sampling of the flaws is done over a much larger area in the four-point bend test,
the average strength obtained in this test must be smaller than that in the three-
point bend test. Hence, circular cross-section glass rods having as-formed
smooth surfaces should be used instead of cut or ground beam specimens. To test
the strength of plate specimens, it is recommended to carry out ball-on-ring or
ring-on-ring tests (preferred for reasons similar to those for four-point versus
three-point bend testing). A ball pressing centrally against specimen supported
on a “ring” formed by three other balls is described in ASTM F394-78.
Occasionally, it is beneficial to abrade the surface by standardized abrasion
techniques (such as dropping silicon carbide grit through a narrow orifice from a
known height, sand blasting or placing micro hardness indentations). This
allows any preexisting flaw population to be replaced by a known, uniform flaw
population.

Glass toughness is most readily measured as indentation toughness by using

loading that develops cracks during microhardness indentation. To measure
toughness, sufficiently large loads are used such that the radial cracks produced
are much longer than the indentation diagonal itself. toughness may be calculated
from the expression

where Ω = 0.016 (a material-dependent constant for Vickers-produced cracks), P

is the applied load in newtons, E = Young’s modulus (MPa), H = Vickers
hardness (MPa), and 2c 0 is the postindentation equilibrium length of the radial
cracks on the surface from end to end (>3 times the indentation diagonal).
02.Method of glass Strengthening
Essentially everything, including metals, ceramics, glass, dust particles, and even
human hands, coming into contact with glass has the potential of causing surface
damage, resulting in a lowered practical strength. Strengthening and toughening
of glass products, therefore, is of considerable importance to glassware
manufacturers.

Strengthening glass can be done via three primary processes; tempering,

thermal strengthening and chemical strengthening in order to increase the heat
resistance and overall strength of the glass.

Heat Tempering:

Toughened or tempered glass is a type of safety glass processed by controlled

thermal treatments to increase its strength compared with normal glass.
Tempering puts the outer surfaces into compression and the inner surfaces into
tension. Such stresses cause the glass, when broken, to crumble into small
granular chunks instead of splintering into jagged shards as plate glass (aka:
annealed glass) create. The granular chunks are less likely to cause injury.

Heat tempering of glass is available in sizes of 160” x 92” (4,064 mm x 2,336.8

mm). This process can be done on glass with a minimal thickness of 1/8” (3.175
mm) and a maximum thickness of 1/2” (12.7 mm), (1” thick for smaller parts –
up to 30” x 24” or 762 mm x 609.6 mm). In the heat tempering process, the glass
substrate is placed onto a roller table and then it goes through a furnace,
heating up the glass above its annealing point up to about 720°C in some cases.
The glass is then quickly cooled (quenched) with forced air drafts.

Heat Strengthening:

The heat-treatment process of ordinary float glass consists in heating the glass
beyond its softening point (over 600°C) and then cooling it down rapidly. This
cooling freezes the outer surfaces in their dilated mode while allowing the inner
material to retract as temperature drops, thus creating compression strength on
the outer layers and tension in the inner layer. Compression strengths in
tempered glass are higher than in heat strengthened glass.

Heat strengthening of glass is available in sizes of 168” x 96” (4,367.2 mm x

2,438.4 mm). This process can be done on glass with a minimal thickness of 1/8”
(3.175 mm) and a maximum thickness of 1/2” (12.7 mm), (1” or 25.4 mm thick
for smaller parts – up to 32”x 25” or 812.8 mm x 635 mm). In the heat
strengthening process, the glass substrate is processed similar to a fully tempered
part, except that the temperature and cycle times, along with the quenching
parameters are varied.

Chemical Strengthening:

Abrisa Technologies’ High Ion Exchange or HIE™ glass is chemically

strengthened glass that has increased strength as a result of a post-product
chemical process. Glass is submersed in a bath containing a potassium salt
(typically potassium nitrate) at 300°C. This causes sodium ions in the glass
surface to be replaced by potassium ions from the bath solution. These potassium
ions are larger than the sodium ions and therefore wedge into the gaps left by the
smaller sodium ions when they migrate to the potassium nitrate solution. This
replacement of ions causes the surface of the glass to be in a state of compression
and the core in compensating tension. The surface compression of chemically
strengthened glass may reach up to 690 MPa. This process typically increases the
strength of the glass by 6 to 8X that of float glass. The ion-exchange process
creates a deep compression layer on the surface of the glass structure, reducing
the introduction of flaws once incorporated into the end product and put into
service.

Chemically strengthened glass is available in a minimum thickness of 0.30mm

(0.012″), and a maximum thickness of 19mm or (0.75″). Minimum size is
25.4mm x 25.4 mm or (1″ x 1″) and a maximum size of 914.4mm x 736.6mm or
(36″ x 29″). Diagonal maximum size of 1056.8mm x 736.6mm or (42″ x 29″) –
approximately 51″ diagonal.
 02. Measure microhardness and its compositional dependency

The hardness should be a measure of the resistance of a material to being

penetrated and eroded by another material's sharp projections. The scratching
capability of various minerals is ranked using the Mohs scale of hardness
spanning 1 to 10, 10 being diamond and rated the hardest.
Depending on Applied force
‘‘Macro’’ test-load >1 kg is applied; Brinell testers, Rockwell, Vickers
tester.
‘‘micro’’ refers to 1 kg of force is applied. Knoop testers, Vickers testers
“nano-indentation” testers-loads as light as 0.01 g

Hardness testing can be divided into three main categories: indentation hardness
testing, dynamic testing, and scratch hardness testing.

Indentation is currently the most practical method of testing. A material with a

hardness near that of diamond is used to create a permanent deformation in the
surface test sample, then the hardness of the test sample is determined from the
load needed to create the deformation and the dimensions of the permanent
deformation. Vickers indenter is a indenter with a 136°angle between opposing
faces.

Vickers harness is calculated from the following equation using the test sample
load at the time an indentation is formed in the test sample surface and the
average length of diagonal lines across the indentation.

Hv=1854.4 P/d2
Where
P=test load (gf)
D=average diagonal length (µm)
No unit symbol is used for HV values.
Working Procedure:

1. At first, the tile sample was taken.

2. Since it was a tile sample with polished surface it does not require any special
surface preparation.
3. The electric power switch of the micro-hardness tester was turned on.
4. The sample was kept into the stage of the micro-hardness tester.
5. Using the stage elevation handle and micrometer, the sample, placed under the
objective lens, was made focused.
6. After focusing, the microstructure of the sample was observed.
7. After that, the [Vickers X40] was pressed for Vicker’s test and then the initial
settings such as date, times and the amount of load was setup.

8. Loading the sample: Then it was the time loading the sample. A motor raised
and lowered the indenter to apply and remove the load by simply pressing the
[Start] key, 9.80N load was automatically selected and a series of operations to
apply and remove the load is automatically performed.
9. Load maintenance time:
By pressing the [Time] key, 8 seconds time was entered as the load maintenance
time. That means the selected 9.807N load was applied for 8 seconds.
10. Then again the microstructure was observed through the eye-piece and the
indentation of the diamond indenter was found.
11. Indentation measurement: The microscope was used to measure the
indentation. To measure an indentation (Vickers Indentation) 2 lines, referred to
as “indexes” are placed on opposite sides of the indentation by using index
positioning knob. By fixing left index, the right index was adjusted. Then the
distance between the horizontal edges (L1) was read by pressing the [Next] key.
Since both horizontal and vertical diagonal are of same length, the vertical
diagonal length of the indentation can be entered automatically by pressing two
times a button positioned at the main unit. Hence for one press the 2 nd diagonal
length value (L2) was displayed on the LCD touch panel and other was for
hardness number.
12. Duramin automatically calculated the hardness number after the indentation
value L 1 and L 2 had been measured.
Microhardness vs. Glass Composition
The VHN of Si02 glass is generally quoted at about 630kgf/mm 2, and that of
B203 at about 205 kgf/mm 2. The addition of alkalis decreases the hardness of
silica presumably because the connectivity of the structure decreases. On the
other hand, the addition of alkalis to B203 glass, causing conversion to four-
coordinated borons, increases the connectivity, and hence the hardness.

As in the case of the elastic moduli, the addition of alkaline earths increases the
hardness. Most of the common soda-lime silica glasses have a VHN of about
550 kgf/mm 2 . The KHN values for corresponding compositions are generally
smaller than the VHN values. The microhardness of chalcogenide glasses in the
Ge-Sb-As-Se-Te family varies between about 100 and 180 kgf/mm 2 .
Hardnesses of heavy metal fluorides range between 230 and 300 kgf/mm 2 ,
considerably less than those of the silicates, but greater than those of the
chalcogenides.

Conclusion: From the experiment we gain knowledge about measure glass

strength and toughness, method of improving glass strength, measure
microhardness and its compositional dependency