Hardness of Various Materials

1- Metals:
Hard material has a good strength. The hardness test is very comparable to
the compression test. Furthermore, the compression test is similar to the tensile
test in the principle. The hardness is related to the strength by the following
relationship
TS = K h (HB)
Where K h = 3.45 is the constant of proportionality if TS units are in MPa.
Table 3.6 lists typical hardness of selected metals.

Table 3.7 list hardness for ceramics and some other hard materials.

Table 3.8 for hardness of some polymers

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2 - Ceramics:
These materials cannot be hardness tested in Brinell Device because the ceramics
are often harder than the indenter ball, instead use the Vickers and Knoop tests.
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Effect of temperature on Properties
Most of properties are temperature dependent. For example, at high
temperatures, materials are lower in strength and higher in ductility. See fig.

Hot Hardness: it is the ability of a material to retain hardness at elevated

temperatures. See fig for several materials and their hot hardness behavior with
temperature.
Hot harness materials are preferred in many application such as:
- Turbine parts.
- Cutting tools.

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Viscoelastic behavior of Polymers ‫التصرف (المرن – اللزج) للبوليمرات‬
In a viscoelastic solid, the relationship between stress and strain is time dependent,
mathematically:
σ(t) = f(t)ϵ
Where f(t) is the modulus of elasticity that depends on time. Vid 27

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 Definitions of some mechanical properties
1- Malleability and Ductility ‫الطروقية والمطيلية‬
Both these of properties are related to the plasticity of the materials.
“Malleability is the ability of plastic deformation under compressive loads” while
“Ductility is the ability to plastic deformation under tensile loads”.
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Examples:
- A malleable materials can be beaten into thin sheets and even thinner foils.
- A ductile material can be drawn into wires. Vid 28
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Percentage Elongation: it is the measure of ductility
L − L0
%Elongation = X100
L
Where L and L0 are the allowed length during drawing process and L0 is the
original length before drawing. If material 1 has 20% ductility and material 2 has
50% ductility, then we say that material 2 has more ductility than material 1.
Notes:
1 - The drawing process is one processes in manufacturing. Simply it can be
defined as “the process of producing wires of a smaller diameter and higher in
length from wires of a bigger diameter and lower in length.” Vid 29 & 30.
2- The material should be drawn up to a value that is less the fracture stress.
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Brittleness ‫القصافة او الهشاشة‬
It is opposite to ductility. Glasses and ceramics are the most common brittle
materials.
Why brittle material breaks?
Due to its inability to withstand shock loads.
So, it can be defined as “the inability of materials to stay one piece under the act
of a shock loads”.
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Stiffness and Resilience ‫الجسوءة والمرونة‬
A material with high value of modulus of elasticity is said to be stiff. And
a material with low value of modulus of elasticity is said to be resilient.
The material which have a high modulus of elasticity will not stretch much. It will
behave as a “stiff” material.
Resilience is a property that is totally opposite to stiffness.
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Example: a beam made of stiff material will deflect to a lesser extent as compared
to another beam made of resilient material under identical loading condition.
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Toughness and Impact Strength ‫المتانة ومتانة التصادم‬
They are the ability of the material to absorb energy before actual failure occurs.
If we changed the stress – strain curve to be force vs elongation curve then
the area under the curve is exactly represents the energy required to fracture the
material. So, the higher the energy, the higher the toughness of the material.
Higher impact strength goes with higher toughness.
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Impact tests: ‫اختبارات الصدمة‬
When metal is subjected to suddenly applied load or stress, it may fail.
There is an impact test that assesses the metal capacity to stand sudden impacts.
Two standard tests were employed for estimating the impact strength of materials,
IZOD test and Charpy Test.
1- IZOD Test ‫اختبار ايزود‬: a standard specimen is prepared with dimensions shown
in fig.

This specimen is fixed in the IZOD testing machine in a vertical position.

A blow from a swinging pendulum falling from a specified height is then struck
on the test specimen 22 mm above the notch. The mass of the pendulum is known.

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The height from which pendulum descends down to strike is also known. Then
the energy stored in the pendulum is (mgh1 ).
After striking the test piece and fracturing it at the notch, the pendulum
moves on and the height h2 to which it rises on the other side of the test piece is
noted and measured which give the energy mgh2 . Then the difference between
those energies is calculated and it represents the impact strength of the materials.
Mathematically,
Notch Impact Energy = Energy before Strike − Energy After Strike
Impact Strength = mgh1 − mgh2
Technical notes:
- The specimen is held as a cantilever.
- Only one blow is allowed to fracture the specimen.
- Friction most be considered.
- A brittle material has low impact strength and poor toughness.
- Dimensions of the specimen may differ slightly from one setup to another.
- The following fig shows the specimen before and after test. Vid 31

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Charpy Test: ‫اختبار جاربي‬
This test uses the same testing machine as shown above while the specimen has
the following dimensions:

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Notes;
- The specimen is help by two supports while being struck in the middle at
the opposite of the supports as shown in fig below.
- Charpy impact value are not similar to those for IZOD test for the same
specimen. Vid 32

Impact Strength Vs Temperature

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In general,

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Fatigue Test: ‫اختبار الكلل‬
It had been noticed that the material may fracture at lower loads (stresses) than
that actual fracture load if one of the following situations occurs:
1- Stress is alternating: it means that, (and for certain part of the material), the
material suffer from fluctuating in stress between tension and compression
repeatedly. In other word, the stress changes its type.
2- Stress is varying periodically: in this type, the stress is changing its
magnitude, from maximum to minimum then from minimum to maximum
and so on. Vid 33
If the material is subjected to several millions of cycles of either alternating or
varying stress, it gets fatigued and fails even though the magnitude of such
stresses may be far lower as compared to its strength.
Endurance Limit:

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It the maximum allowable stress in which the material is able to withstand without
failure even if it is subjected to an infinite number of cycles.
Sign of Failure Due to Fatigue:
- Point of crack initiation.
- The propagation of the area of the crack.
- The remaining area of cross section showing signs of a sudden breakage.
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