USEK GMC 472 Strength of Material Lab

TP8

Hardness test

Experiment Instructions:

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USEK GMC 472 Strength of Material Lab

I- Introduction:

The wear behavior of materials is affected by Hardness, the harder a material, the
greater is its resistance to wear.
A three axle stress develops in the specimen, underneath the impressing test body,
creating an impression that can be attained even in hard and brittle material, without
the material cracking. The test is considered to be non-destructive.

II- Brinell test:

A hardened steel ball, is used as the test body (ISO 6506), therefore, the
acronym HBS has to be added to the hardness value.

In the Brinell test a ball with a specific diameter D, is impressed vertically

into the workpiece being tested with a load F under consistent load increase, and
held at a specific test load for a certain amount of time. This causes a ball
indentation, whose spherical segment diameter d is measured after the test load is
removed. The specimen must not move during the process.

The Brinell hardness is calculated as follows:

0.102𝐹
𝐻𝐵 =
𝐴𝐵
HB: Brinell Value
F: Test load in N
𝐴𝐵 : Indentation area in mm²

0.102 is a factor that is used to convert from KP/mm² to KN/mm²

In other terms,
2.0,102𝐹
𝐻𝐵 =
𝜋𝐷(𝐷 − √𝐷2 − 𝑑 2 )

HB: Brinell hardness value

F: Load in N

D: diameter of the ball in mm

d: Average diameter of the indentation in mm

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USEK GMC 472 Strength of Material Lab

If the ball of the indentation is not circular, we have to use the average of two vertically facing
measurements:

𝑑1 + 𝑑2
𝑑=
2

The hardness test should be carried out at a room temperature 18…28ºC

In the GUNT 300 machine we will be using the 10mm ball.

- Dwell time:
The test load should act upon the specimen for at least 10, …15, or 30 sec. the test
load should take at least 5s to increase to its maximum.

- Load factor:

The indentation diameter should be between 0.2 and 0.7D in order to obtain a
readable and reproducible ball indentation.

For hard materials, different surface pressures are recommended; force and the
square of the ball have to be in a certain ratio to each other. The ratio is known as
the load factor:

0,102𝐹
𝑥=
𝐷2
x can be noted from the below table:

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USEK GMC 472 Strength of Material Lab

The Brinell Hardness can be noted hence as below:

III- Conducting the experiment:

- Remove any components that may be
present
- Turn the handwheel fully out and move
the load frame all the way down
- Insert compression plate into bottom
crossbar.
- Install hardness test mechanism with
threaded rod and knurled nut on the crosshead. Tighten the
knurled nut by hand.
Keep a distance between test ball and compression plate of at least
15mm.
- Specimens made of aluminum, copper,
brass and steel are tested.
- Place specimen on compression plate.
Carefully lower the test ball onto the specimen by turning the
hand wheel, without applying force.
- Launch the WP 300.20 measurement
data collection Program
- Launch the software module for
collecting measurement data for the tensile test via the Start
menu Brinell test.
From the View menu Settings you can open a dialogue box in

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USEK GMC 472 Strength of Material Lab

which you can specify information about the specimen and the load factor.
- In the Settings dialogue that opens, enter a description for the specimen in the
Kind of specimen field. In the Material field you select the material of the
specimen, or if the material is not listed you can enter it via the Define
pulldown option. Select the load factor from the Load factor pulldown menu.
For the specimens applied by G.U.N.T this factor is 10.
- The project is now ready.
- Set all displays to zero using the button Tare.

- Slowly and steadily apply load to the specimen by turning the handwheel with
the test load F = 9,8kN. In order to support correct application of the test load,
the arrow in the software indicates the target load. Adjust the load by turning
the handwheel accordingly, so that it is as close as possible to the target load.

IF THE CURRENT LOAD DEVIATES FROM THE TARGET LOAD BY

1%, THE EXPERIMENT SHOULD BE STOPPED.

- The stopwatch starts after the target load is reached

- After the load time of 10s is over the stopwatch changes from red to green
- Remove the load from the specimen
- You can also choose a longer load time; be sure to note this down in the test
record
After conducting the experiment:
- Turn the handwheel fully closed and move the load frame all the way down

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USEK GMC 472 Strength of Material Lab

- The diameters of the indentations are entered to the software which will
calculate the average diameter.
- The Brinell Hardness HB is determined when you press EVALUATION

- Fill the below table for the three specimen only : Brass, steel, aluminum.

Knowing that from literature, you can note that:

- HB Steel: 108-140
- HB Bronze: 90
- HB Aluminum : 65
- Analyze the results and conclude