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: TEE HON YI
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: 0322754
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School of Engineering
Taylors University
Malaysia
CONTENT
1
Abstract.. 3
1.0 Introduction..3
2.0 Experimental Design6
2.1 Chemicals and Apparatus.6
2.2 Methods... 7
2.3 Procedure. 7
3.0 Results and Discussions8
4.0 Further Discussion and Error Analysis ...16
5.0 Conclusions and Recommendations 17
References..18
ABSTRACT
By conducting this experiment, the hardness of different types of materials is determined
through the Brinell hardness test. In this experiment, there are 4 different types of metal
samples being tested: mild iron, brass, copper and aluminium. The metals being tested are
indented on the Gunt Universal Hardness Testing Machine WP 300, with a metal ball being
used as an indenter. The diameter of indentation for each metal is recorded and the Brinell
Hardness Number (BHN) or hardness value is calculated with all the parameters given in the
experiment.
The hardness values for each type of metal obtained from the experiment is then compared to
the theoretical results given and the results are analysed. From the experiment, it is found that
the hardness value of mild steel, brass, copper and aluminium are 170.9452, 85.3910,
68.4923, and 62.9025 respectively. By comparing the experimental results and the theoretical
results, it is found that the experimental values have a large difference apart from the
theoretical values of the experiment. Thus, the relative percentage error of the experiment is
high as well. This could be caused by a number of different factors such as random errors and
human errors. This will be further discussed in the error analysis section. The results of the
experiment can still be further improved by minimising the errors.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
This experiment is conducted to determine the hardness of different types of metals by testing
the materials through the Brinell Hardness Test. Hardness is one of the most important
mechanical properties and an important aspect that should not be overlooked when choosing
a material for manufacturing products and construction, as for a product to be sustainable for
a long period of time, the material must be strong and tensile enough to withstand a high
pressure or force acting against it. The hardness of a metal is a measure of a materials
resistance to permanent deformation of plastic, (e.g. a small dent or a scratch).
In this experiment, the Brinell hardness test is used. The Brinell hardness test is
invented in 1900 by a Swedish engineer named Johan August Brinell. This test is an effective
way in gauging the hardness of a metal because the damage to the specimens surface is
reduced when the material is being tested in this test.
In the Brinell hardness test, the hardness of materials are tested by pressing a steel ball
indenter into the surface of specimen for 15 seconds by a standard load, which in this case, is
10kN. Then, the diameter of the indentation on the surface of the sample is measured after the
load is removed.
The results of the experiment is then recorded and the hardness of the material can be
determined by using the following equation to find the Brinell hardness number:
2F
HB =
D ( D D d
2
Where:
D
When calculating the Brinell hardness number in this experiment, however, 0.102 must be
multiplied into the formula. The formula used to calculate the BHN for the results of this
experiment is shown below:
HB =
0.102
2F
D ( D D2d2 )
Where:
D
This is because 0.102 is the specific coefficient in the Brinell Hardness Test and the formula
has to be modified in order to find the specific value of the BHN for the specimen in this
experiment.
Deformation
displacement
gauge
Upper cross-member
Load gauge
Gripping heads
Frame pillars
Lower cross-member
Main hydraulic
cylinder
Hand wheel
Base with rubber feet
2.2 METHODS
In this experiment, an indentation was made by using the steel ball indenter of the Gunt
Universal Hardness Tester WP 300, and the diameter of the indentations is measured for each
material. The Brinell Hardness Value (HB) is then calculated using the equation stated in the
8
introduction section where the values of all 4 of the metal being tested were being compared
with the theoretical hardness values given. The difference and percentage difference between
the experimental and theoretical values were also calculated and tabulated in the results.
2.3 PROCEDURE
1.
2.
3.
4.
The needle arrow in the load gauge was calibrated to the zero position.
The diameter of the steel ball used as the indenter is measured.
A piece of mild steel specimen was put onto the compression testing platform.
The hand wheel was turned clockwise to apply load force on the surface of the
Force, F
(kN)
Mild Steel
Brass
Copper
Aluminiu
Brinell Hardness
d1
d2
davg
10
10
10
2.760
3.800
4.300
2.700
3.850
4.200
2.730
3.825
4.250
170.9452
79.8526
68.4923
10
3.900
4.100
4.000
77.7808
m
3.92 3.82 3.87 83.34
Brinell Hardness Number ,
2
Materials
BHN (N/mm )
Experimental Theoretical
% Error
ExperimentalTheoretical|)
Mild Steel
170.9452
120.00
50.9452
42.45
Brass
85.3910
60.00
25.3910
42.31
Copper
68.4923
35.00
33.4923
2.03
77.7808
75.00
2.7808
16.12
Aluminium
Table 2. Experimental and theoretical Brinell hardness number.
Hardness value (F = 10 kN):
Mild Steel
HB=
0.102 F
0.102 F
=
2
2
AB
0.5 D ( D D d )
0.102 10 000
0.5 10 ( 1010 22.732 )
10
1020
5.97
170.9452 N mm2
Brass
HB=
0.102 F
0.102 F
=
2
2
AB
0.5 D ( D D d )
0.102 10 000
0.5 10 ( 10 10 3.825
2
1020
11.945
85.3910 N mm2
Copper
HB=
0.102 F
0.102 F
=
AB
0.5 D ( D D 2d 2 )
0.102 10 000
0.5 10 ( 10 10 4.250
2
1020
14.892
68.4923 N mm
Aluminium
HB=
0.102 F
0.102 F
=
2
2
AB
0.5 D ( D D d )
11
0.102 10 000
0.5 10 ( 10 10 4.550
2
1020
16.2155
62.9025 N mm
Pecentage Deviation:
Mild Steel
expLit
Difference
PD =
PD =
1.6647
100
86.5647
PD =1.92
Brass
expLit
Difference
PD =
PD =
1.5526
100
79.8526
PD =1.94
12
Copper
expLit
Difference
PD =
PD =
1.3923
100
68.4923
PD =2.03
Aluminium (F = 10 kN)
expLit
Difference
PD =
PD =
1.4808
100
77.7808
PD =1.90
13
3.2 Discussion
From the result obtained from the experiment, we can conclude that the hardest metal among
all the materials is mild steel, followed by brass, aluminium and finally copper as the softest
metal. The hardness of the metals differ from each other due to the factors that determine
their hardness, ranging from their metallic crystal structure, their alloy properties, and
ultimately to their grain boundary.
The primary metallic crystalline structure of an element is a type of classification for metal in
terms of their internal structure. It describes the arrangement of the metallic atoms at atomic
level, known as crystal unit cell structures or lattices. There are altogether 14 different types
14
of crystal unit cell structures exist in nature, but most of the metal element fall into the
category of the main three crystal unit cell structure, which are body centred cubic (BCC),
face-centred cubic (FCC) and hexagonal closed packed (HCP). For the metals being analysed
in this experiment, the mild steel has a disrupted BCC structure, called BCT structure, while
brass, copper, and aluminium has a FCC structure.
Figure 4. Graphic representation of Cubic, BCC and FCC crystalline structure (Lower,
2015).
The properties of a metal depends on the crystalline structure form in the element. To
determine the hardness of an element, the atomic packing factor, as well as the shape of the
unit cell are important factors that defines the ability of the element resist to deformation
(NDT, 2015). The atomic packing factor is the fraction of volume of the atoms to the total
volume of a unit cell. It is a way to describe how pack a unit cell is. A unit cell with higher
atomic packing factor tends to be deformed easier because its arrangement allows slippage to
occur more easily. Thus, plastic deformation are more likely to occur in element with unit cell
that are more pack. On the other hand, cubic unit cell exhibits a better ductility (the opposite
of hardness) compare to other shape of other unit cells, such as the hexagonal-shape unit cell
found in HCP. This is due to the fact that cubic unit cell provide a better geometry for closed
packed planes in several directions, which indirectly promotes slippage to occur.
Since only BCC and FCC structure present in the sample metals used in the experiment, only
the characteristic of BCC and FCC unit cell will be compared. BCC structure has a whole
atom inside the crystal unit cell and it is surrounded by the corners of eight different cells. It
has a cubic unit cell shape and atomic packing factor of 0.68. FCC structure has four-half
atoms in the middle of the crystal unit cell and it is also surrounded by the corners of eight
cells; it has a cubic unit cell shape and atomic packing factor of 0.74. Hence, comparing the
hardness of BCC and FCC structure unit cells, it is clear to say that metal with BCC structure
has a better hardness because it is a cubic unit cell, and also it has an atomic packing factor of
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0.68, which is less packed than metal with FCC structure. This is the reason why mild steel is
the hardest metal among all other sample metals because it is the only metal here having a
BCC structure, which means that slippage and deformation are less likely to occur in this
metal.
Hardness in terms of alloy properties
Aside from metal having the body-centred crystal structure, another characteristic that makes
metal resist to deformation is their alloy property. Alloy is a mixture of two or more type of
different metal atoms. When the main metal of an alloy is melted and mixed together with an
alloying agent (atoms of another metal element), the composition of the main liquid metal is
changed. This causes the arrangement of the main metal atoms to be disrupted, making the
main metal atoms to arrange themselves and form a different crystal structure arrangement
which consists of new alloying agent atoms present in the void spaces between the main
metal atoms when it cools down. This phenomenon prevents the main metal atoms to slide
onto each other, thus increase the hardness of the main metal element (Woodford, 2008).
There are two types of alloy that are widely use in the industry, namely the substitution alloys
and the interstitial alloys. Substitution alloys are formed when the main metal atoms are
being replaced by the atoms of the alloying agent that has the same or almost similar atomic
radius. This type of alloy can only exist between metals that has their constituent element
quite close to each other in the periodic table. An example of this type of alloy is brass, which
is a mixture of 67% copper and 33% zinc (Helmenstine, 2014).
The interstitial alloys also has alloying agent atoms mixed into the main metal, but they slip
into the gaps between the main metal atoms instead of replacing them. Thus, it is clear that in
order to fit themselves inside the gaps, the alloying agent atoms has to be relatively smaller
compare to the main metal atoms. An example of this type of alloy is steel, which consist of
99% iron and 1% carbon (Robert D., 2002).
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In terms of the hardness between alloys, which are brass and mild steel, we can see that mild
steel is much harder than brass, and this is also proven to be correct theoretically. Brass is a
type of substitution alloy where their main metal atoms (copper) are only being replaced by
the alloying agent (zinc). Thus, the structure of brass does not significantly prevent the
slipping of the metal atoms to occur. On the other hand, mild steel is a type of interstitial
alloy where their main metal atoms (iron) are fixed at their original crystalline positions, and
the alloying agent atoms (carbon) fills in the gaps in between the iron atoms. This creates a
network of grip which holds the iron atoms together, and in the same time prevent the iron
atoms to slip on top of each other, which subsequently increase their hardness (Woodford,
2008).
process (Splung.com, 2015). When hot molten liquid is poured into a mould and allowed to
cool, cooling process take place and it triggers the liquid particles to arrange themselves and
form small crystals, known as grains. Due to even temperature distribution throughout the
molten metal, these grains can start to crystallise at any location in the molten metal
simultaneously. As a result, the crystals grow bigger through the arrangement of the
surrounding liquid particles on the surface of the crystals, but it eventually comes to a stop
when they meet an adjacent crystal by the side. When this happen, a clear boundary, known
as grain boundary is form between the two crystals that has different orientation in terms of
arrangement. The grain boundary is one of the biggest reason that affect several properties of
a material, including ductility, strength, rigidity, and of course also the hardness.
values. The first factor that affect the value can be due to the sensitivity of the Gunt Universal
Hardness Testing Machine WP 300. From the machine setup, we can see that the gauge used
to measure the amount of force acting on the specimens has a fairly large scale. This will
decrease the sensitivity of the measured force acting on the samples, causes error to occur.
Besides this, the use of the simple microscope can also causes parallax error due to the fact
that the microscope can be misplaced at a different height, which can causes a difference in
the actual diameter. Thirdly, the way of manufacturing each type of metal can also cause
changes to the hardness of the specimens. The internal structure, such as the amount of grain
boundary found in the specimens used in this experiment may differ from the overall quality
of the specimens used to produce the literature value, which is why the values are allowed to
differ away slightly from the published literature value. Aside from these error, the location
chosen to get indented is also a factor that affect the results of the experiment. When a metal
is being indented, the particular surface will be harden up due to the dislocation of the grain
accumulate to the side of the indentation due to compression. This can cause the next
indentation near the indented hole to have an inaccurate reading because the hardness around
the indented region has been reinforced by the previous indentation. Most of the specimens
used in this experiment were used previously by other lab groups which means that multiple
indentations have already been made on the surface of the specimen. Thus, certain possibility
occurrence of error is inevitable.
Besides that, it can be noticed that when the load force acting on the surface of the aluminium
specimen increases, the difference of Hardness values as well as their percentage deviation
increases. This could be due to the limitation of the indenter. When more load force is applied
on the test surface, the indenter is being pushed into the specimens even deeper. Due to the
fact that the steel indenter is a metallic sphere, the maximum diameter it can offer for the
indentation can only happen at the circumference along the longest edge of the metallic
sphere. Hence, inaccuracy of results can occur when the metallic sphere is indented pass its
diameter limit. From this, we can state that the higher the load force on the indenter, the
higher the percentage deviation, the higher the inaccuracy of the results.
via experimental approach is slightly higher than the theoretical literature values, with a
maximum percentage deviation of 3.47 %. It has been found out that the hardness values of
mild steel, brass, copper and aluminium are 86.5647, 79.8526, 68.4923, and 77.7808
respectively, and also hardness value for aluminium as 78.4848 and 78.9483 for 15 kN and 17
kN. However, this experiment should be improved by considering the error occurred for
better results.
REFERENCES
1. England, G. (2015). The Brinell Hardness Test. Available:
http://www.gordonengland.co.uk/hardness/brinell.htm. Last accessed 22th May 2015.
2. NDT. (2015). Hardness. Available: https://www.ndeed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Materials/Mechanical/Hardness.htm.
Last accessed 22th May 2015.
3. Helmenstine, A. M.. (2014). What Is Brass. Available:
http://chemistry.about.com/od/alloys/f/What-Is-Brass.htm. Last accessed 22th May
2015.
4. Woodford, C. (2008). Alloys. Available: http://www.explainthatstuff.com/alloys.html.
Last accessed 22th May 2015.
5. Pehlke, Robert D. (2002). "Steel Manufacture." McGraw-Hill Encyclopedia of
Science and Technology , 19th edition, Vol. 17. New York: McGraw-Hill.
6. Splung.com. (2015). The Phases of Matter. Available:
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