MECHANICS OF

MATERIALS

Report 4
Submitted To:
Engr. Arhum Hassan

1
 Group Members:
M. Rafay Khwaja Abdul Moiz
(170301040) (170301058)

Syed Abdullah Shah Ushna Liaqat

(170301003) (170301005)

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Vickers Hardness Test
Experiment

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Literature review
The Vickers hardness test was developed in 1921 by Robert L. Smith and
George E. Sandland at Vickers Ltd as an alternative to the Brinell method
to measure the hardness of materials. The Vickers test is often easier to
use than other hardness tests since the required calculations are
independent of the size of the indenter, and the indenter can be used for
all materials irrespective of hardness. The Vickers hardness test method
consists of indenting the test material with a diamond indenter, in the
form of a right pyramid with a square base and an angle of 136 degrees
between opposite faces subjected to a load of 1 to 100 kgf. The full load
is normally applied for 10 to 15 seconds. The two diagonals of the
indentation left in the surface of the material after removal of the load
are measured using a microscope and their average calculated. The area
of the sloping surface of the indentation is calculated. The Vickers
hardness is the quotient obtained by dividing the kgf load by the square
mm area of indentation [1]. When doing the hardness tests the minimum
distance between indentations and the distance from the indentation to
the edge of the specimen must be taken into account to avoid interaction
between the work-hardened regions and effects of the edge.

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Procedure:
1. First of all, prepare the sample whose hardness you want to test.
2. The load we are applying in this experiment is 10 kgf
3. Place the sample on the test stage such that it is directly below
microscope.
4. Now see through the microscope until the sample is clearly visible
through the microscope.
5. Now switch to the indenter and fix it into place (make sure that it
snaps into place).
6. Now set the dwell time, in this experiment we set the dwell time to
10 seconds.
7. Now press the start button to start the indentation.
8. Switching back to the microscope snapping it into place.
9. Now we use the provided microscope to measure the horizontal and
vertical diagonals of the diamond shaped indenter.
10. From the given data measure the HV of VPN.

Microscopic appearance

The microscopic appearance of the indent are as follows

Aluminum sample Aluminum sample after

before indentation indentation

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Stainless steel sample
Stainless steel sample
before indentation
after indentation

Mild steel sample before Mild steel sample after

indentation indentation

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Calculations:

For Aluminum

The horizontal length=8.33

The vertical length=8.80

8.33+8.80
=
2

=8.565
8.565
=
10

=0.8565mm

Using the given table

=25.3 HV
For stainless steel

The horizontal length=6.70

The vertical length=6.75

6.70+6.75
=
2

=6.725
6.725
=
10

=0.6725mm

Using the given table

=41.25 HV
For Mild Steel

The horizontal length=8.14

The vertical length=8.13

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 8.14+8.13
=
2

=8.135
8.135
=
10

=0.8135mm

Using the given table

=28.1 HV

Conclusion:

From the above calculation we can say that the samples we have tested is
have 25.3 HV for Aluminum, 28.1 HV mild steel and 41.25 HV for stainless
steel.

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 Works Cited

[1] "Gordon England," 2 may 2002. [Online]. Available:

https://www.gordonengland.co.uk/hardness/vickers.htm.