Impact Test

Dr. Mona Abou Eleaz

Fall. 2020
The purpose of impact testing is to measure an object's ability to resist high-rate loading. The test measures the impact
energy, or the energy absorbed prior to fracture.

What is Impact Energy?

Impact energy is a measure of the toughness of a materials, i.e. materials resistance to fracture.

When the striker impacts the specimen, the specimen will absorb energy until it yields. At this point, the specimen will
begin to undergo plastic deformation at the notch. The test specimen continues to absorb energy at the plastic zone at the
notch. When the specimen can absorb no more energy, fracture occurs.
• The most common methods of measuring impact energy are the:
1. Charpy Test
2. Izod Test

1.The Charpy Test

• While most commonly used on metals, it is also used on polymers, ceramics

and composites. The Charpy test is most commonly used to evaluate the
relative toughness or impact toughness of materials and as such is often used
in quality control applications where it is a fast and economical test
Charpy Test Specimens
According to ASTM Standard E 23, “Standard Test Methods for Notched Bar Impact Testing of Metallic Materials”,
Charpy test specimens normally measure 55x10x10mm and have a notch machined across one of the larger faces. The notches may be:
• V-notch – A V-shaped notch, 2mm deep, with 45° angle and 0.25mm radius along the base
• U-notch or keyhole notch – A 5mm deep notch with 1mm radius at the base of the notch.

Figure (1) Standard

specimens of
Charpy and Izod
impact energy tests
 Figure 3. Schematic of the Charpy specimen impact test.

Figure 2. Schematic of the Charpy impact test.

What Does the Charpy Test Involve?
The Charpy test involves striking a suitable test piece with a striker, mounted at the end of a pendulum.
The test piece is fixed in place at both ends and the striker impacts the test piece immediately behind a
machined notch.

Determination of Charpy Impact Energy

At the point of impact, the striker has a known amount of kinetic energy. The impact energy is calculated based on the
difference between initial and final heights of the swinging pendulum.

Impact energy (E) = mgh1- mgh2 = mg ( h1-h2)

Energy unit is Joule = N.m
h unit is m
g is gravity ( 9.8 N/Kg or m/s2 )
m unit (Kg)

Note: Tough materials absorb a lot of energy, whilst brittle materials tend to absorb
very little energy prior to fracture
 A B

Figure 4. A- Brittle and B- ductile fracture under Charpy impact test

The left specimen brittle—looks like it just snapped in half. The right
specimen sample is ductile and bends without breaking into pieces .
The main differences between Izod and Charpy
Izod and Charpy tests are similar, but they are different in :

1. Point of Strike : Point at which the hammer strike the specimen is different for both of them. In Izod test hammer strike at
the upper tip of specimen while in Charpy test hammer strike at point of notch but in opposite direction
2- Direction of Notch: Face of specimen which faces the striker is different. The notch face in the izod test is facing the striker,
fastened in a pendulum, while in the charpy test, the notch face is positioned away from the striker.
3-Type Of Notch: In hardness testing two types of notches are used V-notch and U-notch. In the Charpy method, there are two
kinds of notches, the V-notch and the U-notch, while in the Izod method, there is V-notch is used
4-Specimen Dimensions: Even if you are testing the same material the test specimens have different dimensions for each test.
The basic Izod test specimen is 75 x 10 x 10mm, the basic Charpy test specimen is 55 x 10 x 10mm.
CHARPY IZOD TEST
TEST
Factors Affecting Charpy Impact Energy

Factors that affect the Charpy impact energy of a specimen will include:

1- Yield Strength and Ductility: For a given material the impact energy will be seen to decrease

if the yield strength is increased due to the reduction of ductility

2-Notches: The notch serves as a stress concentration zone and some materials are more sensitive

towards notches than others. The notch depth and tip radius are therefore very important.

3- Temperature and Strain Rate: The higher strain rate, the lower impact energy
Figure 5. effect of loading rate on Imoact energy
Ductile to Brittle Transition for metals
Body centered cube materials such as carbon steels undergo what is known as a ‘ductile to brittle transition’. This
behavior is obvious when impact energy is plotted as a function of temperature. FCC metals do not have a ductile to
brittle transition temperature and instead remain ductile at low temperatures. This is because the stress required to
move dislocations is not strongly temperature-dependent in FCC metals, and thus failure occurs by plastic flow
instead of crack propagation.
In BCC metals, at low temperature the stress required to make crack propagation is less than stress required for
plastic flow, thus failure occurs by crack propagation.

Examples of Materials which have FCC structure are: Aluminum, Nickel, Copper, austenite (Gamma-Iron)
Examples of Materials which have BCC structure are: Pure Iron, Chromium, (alpha, delta Iron)
Figure 6. Ductile to Brittle transition of BCC materials at low temperature
Figure 7. Effect of Temperature on materials with FCC and BCC structure
 Example:
Following is tabulated data that were gathered from a series of Charpy impact tests on
a tempered 4340 steel alloy
Temperature (c) Impact Energy (J) (a) Plot the data as impact energy versus temperature.
0 105
_25 104
_50 103 (b) Determine a ductile-to-brittle transition temperature as that
_75 97 temperature corresponding to the average of the maximum and
_100 63
_113 40
minimum impact energies.
_125 34
_150 28 (a) Determine a ductile-to-brittle transition temperature as that
_175 25
temperature at which the impact energy is 50 J
_200 24
 120
110
100
90
80
B 70

energy J
60
50
40
30
C 20
10
0
-250 -200 -150 -100 -50 0
temperature C

Solution:

(b) Average maximum and minimum impact energies = 24+105 / 2 = 64.5 J

So, temperature at 64.5 J is equal to about - 99 C

( c ) a ductile-to-brittle transition temperature as that temperature at which the impact energy is 50 J

is about T= -110 C