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FACULTY OF ENGINEERING

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT

Strength of Materials LAB

ME 312

[Experiment #1 ]
[Hardness test]
‫ اتعهد ان‬155106 ‫انا الطالب احسان السميعات الرقم الجامعي‬
‫هذا التقرير من عملي الخاص‬

Name ‫احسان فارس السميعات‬

ID # 155106
Sec # 1#
Dr. ‫ خالد بطاينة‬.‫د‬
Eng. ‫ معاذ العجلوني‬.‫م‬
Date 2023/7/18
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1. Introduction
Hardness is a one of the properties of the materials, it is known as the ability of the material
to resists scratching or a permanent deformation (plastic deformation) or indentation and
rebound.
The most common test in measuring the scratching is Mohs scale, and in the indentation
hardness there is three possible tests will be discussed in this experiment Brinell hardness test,
Rockwell hardness test, and Vickers hardness test.

2. Objectives

• Understanding the hardness definition

• Learn and understand how to do the Brinell, Rockwell, and Vickers hardness tests and
how to do its calculation
• Knowing the deference between those tests
• Understand what these calculations means to us in engineering and its units

3. Brinell hardness test

3.1 tests equipment:

Figure 1: Brinell hardness test device. Figure 2: Air compressor.

• Note that Brinell device works on pneumatic force.

• Brinell device used to measuring the hardness of material.
• Air compressor in the figure#2 provide the Brinell device with compressed air
approximately 7 bar or higher.
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Figure 3 is microscope, used to measure the

circular deformation resulting by
indentation.

Figure 3: Microscope.

• Tests specimen

Figure 4: steel. Figure 5: Aluminum.

3.2 procedures:
1. At first you should take the safety measures.
2. A small steel ball is used as an indenter with a diameter (10mm) in this
experiment.
3. Put the specimen above the plate under the metallic sphere and rise it slowly
until it touches the steel ball (indenter).
4. Then, open the pressurized air valve carefully to apply the load.
5. Use a stopwatch for timing and wait for (5 seconds for soft metal like
aluminum) or (15-30 seconds for hard material like steel).
6. Turn of the machine and take the specimen to measure the circular
deformation by the microscope.
7. do the rest of calculations.
Note that you should take a deferent measure for the diameter and take the average to reduce
the error in measuring.
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3.3 Data:
Table 1:Brinell hardness number

Aluminum Steel

P(kgf) = 865 D= 10mm t=30sec P(kgf)= 2950 D= 10mm t= 15sec

d1(mm) d2(mm) d HBN σ ultimate d1(mm) d2(mm) d HBN σ ultimate

4.2522 4.2636 4.2579 57.85750 199.60837 7.3302 7.2732 7.3017 59.29346 204.56244

4.2294 4.2408 4.2351 58.51497 201.87664 6.9882 7.0452 7.0167 65.3232 225.36504

4.2066 4.218 4.2123 59.18311 204.18173 7.1592 7.1592 7.1592 62.224 214.6728

Average 58.51853 201.88891 Average 62.28022 214.86676

Calculations:

d1 + d 2 2 P
d= HBN =
2   D  (D − D2 − d 2 )

 ult = 3.45  HBN

For aluminum:

4.2522 + 4.2636
d= = 4.2579mm
2
2  865
HBN = = 57.8575HBN
 10  (10 − 10 + 4.2579 2 2

 ult = 3.45  57.8575 = 199.60837MPa

For steel:
7.3302 + 7.2732
d= = 7.3017mm
2
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2  2950
HBN = = 59.29346 HBN
 10  (10 − 10 − 7.3017 ) 2 2

Where:
P: is the load in kgf
D: the indenter diameter in mm
d: the diameter of indentation in mm

4 Rockwell hardness test

4.1 tests equipment

• Rockwell hardness test device use a

weights and summation of forces law
to apply a load to the specimen.

Figure 6: Rockwell hardness test machine.

• Tests specimen

Figure 7: Aluminum. Figure 8: High speed steel.

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4.2 Procedures
1. Use one of the specific scales (A, B and C) that upon the type of materials.
2. Put the sample on the plate then rise it until it touches the indenter, in Rockwell’s
machine a diamond cone is used as an indenter.
3. Keep rise until the two indicators in the gage are in there right position, then turn on the
machine and take the reading from your specific scale on the gage.
4. Don’t forget to turn of the machine and take the safety measures.

4.3 Data
Table 2: Rockwell hardness number.

Material Mild steel Aluminum High speed steel Spring steel

Scale HRB HRB HRC HRC

Reading #1 90.9235 70.956 75.9885 56.021

Reading #2 92.3579 71.9464 77.0349 57.0349

Reading #3 93.6833 73.3603 78.5373 58.5373

Average 92.32157 72.08757 77.1869 57.19773

R1 + R 2 + R3
Calculations: Average =
3
90.9235 + 92.3579 + 93.6833
Average for mild steel = = 92.32157 HRB
3
70.956 + 71.9464 + 73.3603
Average for aluminum = = 72.08757 HRB
3
75.9885 + 77.0349 + 78.5373
Average for high speed steel = = 77.1869 HRC
3
56.021 + 57.0349 + 58.5373
Average for spring steel = = 57.19773HRC
3
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5 Vickers hardness test

5.1 test equipment

Figure 9: Vickers hardness test machine. Figure 10: Digital microscope.

5.2 Tests specimen

• In Vickers test a pyramid diamond

shape is used as an indenter.
• Note that a Vickers machine lift a
very small indentation so that an aye
almost cannot see it and so that a
digital microscope is used.

Figure 11: steel.

5.3 procedures
1. At first choose the value of the load depending of the material type.
2. Put the specimen on the plate and turn on the machine and after a few seconds the
machine asks you to calibrate the value of the diagonal d1 and d2 by using eyepiece in
its microscope.
3. Confirm the data measured and let the machine do the rest of calculations.
Please be noted that all safety measures are taken before doing any test on the lab.
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5.3 Data
Table 3: Vickers test numbers

Aluminum / HV10 Steel / HV30

Test d1(mm) d2(mm) HV d1(mm) d2(mm) HV

No.

1 0.5735 0.5759 56.14628 0.6547 0.6562 129.4928

2 0.5821 0.5669 56.18538 0.642 0.6433 134.7025

3 0.5773 0.5725 56.10723 0.662 0.6609 127.1542

Average 56.1463 Average 130.4498

Calculations
d1 + d 2 1.8544  P
d= HV =
2 d2
0.5735 + 0.5759
For aluminum: d = = 0.5747mm
2
1.8544 10
HV = = 56.14628 HV
0.5747 2

0.6547 + 0.6562
For steel: d = = 0.65545mm
2
1.8544  30
HV = = 129.4928 HV
0.655452

Where:
P: the load in Kgf (10 for aluminum and 30 for steel).
d: diameter of the diagonal in mm.

Question: the actual HV30 value for steel is 273.5 find the error.

273.5 − 130.4498
Error = 100 0 0 = 52.3 0 0
273.5
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6 discussions
In this experiment we learned the meaning of hardness and the tools and devices used to measure
it, we also learned how to use these devices safely and how bad it can be and how wrong our
calculations would be if we use it without learning first, we also recognize the deference
between each test and how to get more aqurate measures. In Brinell test you can see a small
deference between the steel and aluminum although the steel is much stronger, that is because
we applied the force for less time for steel because its stronger, we take deferent reading of
diameter to reduce the error. In Rockwell test a classification for materials is used because some
material cannot compare to another (there is a huge deference). In Vickers test we used a
deferent load between aluminum and steel, we could use the same load in this test. In the three
tests above and all the test we make we should take more than one reading to reduce the error.
Maybe you ask yourself why we used a diamond? The answer for that because diamond is the
hardest material that the human discovers and so you can use it as a reference to describe the
strength of material. Sometimes the human error or choosing the inappropriate scale or test make
a big deference in calculations and produce a huge error.

7 conclusions
Hardness is a property of materials that we can measure by many tests. In Brinell test we can
see that steel is harder than aluminum. In Rockwell test we see that mild steel is harder than
aluminum and high speed steel is harder than spring steel, it’s wrong to compare between
deferent scales. In the Vickers test we notice that the measured value of hardness for steel is
much lower than the true value; this could be a result of more than one error such as misguiding
the specimen or it could be that the specimen composes to a heat treatment or is too old so its
property has changed.