Continuous Assessment Cover Sheet Faculty

of Engineering

Module Details

Module Code MT1010 Module Title Engineering Materials

Program: SLIIT Course: BSc ENG

Stream: civil / 1st Year

Assessment details

Title Microstructure examination Group assignment

of steel
If yes, Group No. G1_D
Lecturer/ Instructor Date of Performance 11/14/22
Due date 11/14/22 Date submitted 11/26/22

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EN21497070 Shehar.D.M.K.M Shehar

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 SRI LANKA INSTITUTE OF INFORMATION
TECHNOLOGY

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

ENGINEERING MATERIALS
MT 1010

Hardness Testing of Materials

Name: Shehar.D.M.K.M
Index: EN21497070
Group: G1_D
OBJECTIVES
The Rockwell scale must be used for determining the hardness of metallic materials.

INTRODUCTION

A material's resistance to permanent deformation, such as indentation, wear, scratching, etc., is named as
hardness. the Rockwell hardness test is a modern technique used to determine the hardness of a material.
This is usually done by inserting it using a special device. This test can be applied to any metals except
for those exposed to excessive surface fluctuation. Tungsten carbide ball indenter and diamond spherical
indenter are two types of indenters commonly used for indentation. This test involves determining the
indentation generated by the indenter when the weight of a sample is increased from a predetermined
initial force to full force. The Rockwell scale measures a material's resistance to indentation as a measure
of hardness. In the Rockwell operation, compared to the penetration made with a preload, the indenter
measured the depth of penetration with a higher load. Here you can see the different scales indicated by a
single letter using different loads or indenters.

THEORY
Here, using a light weight, the indenter is pressed into the test material. When the equilibrium is reached,
the movement of the indenter should be observed and adjusted to a specific position. This action reacts to
changes in the penetration depth of the indenter. Penetration is increased by adding more weight while
the original minor load is still applied. After re-establishing the equilibrium, the additional applied load
should be removed but the initial small load should be kept the same. The removal of this large load
allows for partial recovery of the system, thus reducing the depth of penetration. Using the permanent
increase in penetration depth by loading and removing additional load to calculate the Rockwell hardness
number. By the difference between the first and last depth measurements the Rockwell hardness value
can be calculated. This distance is converted into a number that reflects the material's hardness.

Calculation for the HR value depends on the type of indenter used for the experiment.

For spheroconical diamond indenter.

HR = 100 – h/0.002

For ball indenter.

HR = 130 – h/0.002
MATERIALS AND APPARATUS

Materials
• Rockwell hardness testing machine
• Diamond indenter
• Hard steel specimen
• Vernier caliper

Apparatus
PROCEDURE

➢ A specimen was first chosen before conducting the experiment.

➢ After that, the specimen was put on the Rockwell testing device's stage.

➢ After that, the capstan wheel was turned to lift the specimen by contacting the indenter's tip.

➢ The gauge wheel was adjusted until the main dial reached zero and the small dial gauge detected
the difference.

➢ Then a 150N sample was loaded. And then by moving the crank to the loaded position, the
specimen was loaded.

➢ For apply the principle load the lever on the machine’s side was lowered. Then the lever should
be lowered immediately. Then The needle on the primary gauge began to fluctuate.

➢ Then when the needle stopped fluctuating the lever was returned to its starting position, to
making the cursor rotate in the other direction.

➢ Then the readings were then taken when the indicator stopped fluctuating.

➢ To get the results, the test should be performed at least three times and the average value can be
used to reduce the errors in obtaining the results.
OBSERVATIONS
CALCULATIONS

RESULTS

Publish data Reading 2 Reading 3 Reading 4 Reading 5 Reading 6 Average

Reading 1
90 86 84 86 87 85 85.6
DISCUSSION

OBTAINED RESULTS

The shape of the sample used in this test is a cubic shape. Its cross-section is square, and its long side is
cubic shape.

Small holes were observed in the sample taken before the test. This is because we obtained a previously
tested specimen. Therefore, before performing this test, the face of this specimen should be smoothed as
much as possible with sandpaper.

The publish data is 90 HRC, but as the average of 5 readings we got 85.6 HRC

The Variation,

90 – 85.6 = 4.4 HRC

Variation between data given here and data received by us is 4.4 HRC for the reasons we got deference
value is,

➢ Indenter not in good condition

➢ Specimen is rusty and lacks uniform surface.
➢ Presence of human error in taking readings
➢ The platform on which the specimen is placed is full of accumulated particles such as dust or rust.
➢ Errors in adjusting the indenter to the required test.

IMPORTANCE OF HARDNESS TESTING

A material's strength, elasticity and wear resistance can be assessed using hardness testing, which is
important as it enables the determination of whether a material or material treatment is suitable for the
intended purpose.
SHORTCOMING OF THE TESTING METHOD

One drawback is that even a small inaccuracy in measuring the difference in depth can cause a
significant error in the hardness value, so it is not possible to obtain a more accurate approach to
hardness testing.

And there are some limitations in the hardness test

• The main disadvantage of this test is that it cannot be used for small objects due to large indenter
impressions.
• When hard object balls are used, the indenter warps and provides slightly unreliable information
during examination.
• This test cannot be performed on thin objects due to deep penetration.

HOW TO IMPROVE THE ACCURACY OF THE TEST

• The specimen should be made flat without oxides or other impurities.

• Before testing the hardness of the sample, a standard Rockwell hardness block should be used to
calibrate the hardness tester.
• After testing the hardness of the sample, the hardness tester should be calibrated with a standard
Rockwell hardness block and its error recorded again
• Direct adjustment of the hardness tester's measured value in accordance with the standard
hardness
• Use the method of linear computation to adjust the measured value in accordance with the
hardness tester's error.
• Repeated testing of positive and negative orders
CONCLUSION
The stiffness of a material is an important property inherent to that material. Through this test, we can
observe the changes in behavior of metals with temperature. Hardness depends on the amount of energy
absorbed by the material. At higher temperatures, the metal becomes more rigid and becomes a liquid
after reaching the maximum temperature. Also, when the temperature decreases, the stiffness of the
material decreases. The fracture surface becomes smooth with the same temperature increase. As the
temperature decreases, the fracture surface becomes rougher. In our future designs, we can increase the
quality of designs by tightly controlling the temperature of a metal to different values. These we can
easily conclude by this test. With this information we as a future engineer can work easily in
metallurgical activities. It is our future responsibility to use these effectively for our activities.

REFERENCE

➢ Low III, S.R., 2001. NIST Recommended practice guide: Rockwell hardness measurement of
metallic materials.

➢ Rubio, M.P., Vergara, D., Rodríguez, S. and Extremera, J., 2018, June. Virtual reality learning
environments in materials engineering: Rockwell hardness test. In International Conference in
Methodologies and intelligent Systems for Techhnology Enhanced Learning (pp. 106-113).
Springer, Cham.

➢ Asgharzadeh, A., Nazari Tiji, S.A., Esmaeilpour, R., Park, T. and Pourboghrat, F., 2020.
Determination of hardness-strength and-flow behavior relationships in bulged aluminum alloys
and verification by FE analysis on Rockwell hardness test. The International Journal of Advanced
Manufacturing Technology, 106(1), pp.315-331.

➢ Barbato, G., Galetto, M., Germak, A. and Mazzoleni, F., 1998. Influence of the indenter shape in
Rockwell hardness test. Proc. of the HARDMEKO ‘98, Sept, pp.21-23.

➢ Dai, G., Herrmann, K. and Menelao, F., 2009. Two approaches for enhancing the accuracy of the
Rockwell hardness test. Measurement Science and Technology, 20(6), p.065701.

➢ Low, S.R., Pitchure, D.J. and Flanigan, C.D., 2000, September. The effect of suggested changes
to the rockwell hardness test method. In Proceeding of 16th World Congress of International
Measurement Confederation (IMEKO-XVI).

➢ Ayyıldız, S., Soylu, E.H., İde, S., Kılıç, S., Sipahi, C., Pişkin, B. and Gökçe, H.S., 2013.
Annealing of Co-Cr dental alloy: effects on nanostructure and Rockwell hardness. The Journal of
Advanced Prosthodontics, 5(4), pp.471-478.