ISSN: 1945-7553
Page Count: 9

Simulation and Prediction of Hardness Performance of Rockwell Diamond Indenters Using Finite-Element Analysis

Ma, L
Guest Researcher, Materials Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, and Physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg,MD

Low, S
Guest Researcher, Materials Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, and Physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg,MD

Zhou, J
Associate Professor, Drexel University, Philadelphia,PA

Song, J
Guest Researcher, Materials Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, and Physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg,MD

deWit, R
Guest Researcher, Materials Research Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, and Physicist, National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Gaithersburg,MD

(Received 20 September 2001; accepted 6 March 2002)

Abstract

The difficulty in manufacturing Rockwell diamond indenters to the required geometric specifications has resulted in most commercially manufactured indenters to vary in shape from one to another. This difference in shape is thought to be a major contributor to the Rockwell C scale hardness measurement uncertainty. In this paper, a finite-element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the Rockwell hardness measurement process. The influences of the indenter's geometry, including tip radius, cone angle, and form error on Rockwell hardness tests are analyzed by the FEA model, and further verified by experimental results. A new method is developed to directly input the Rockwell indenters' profiles into the FEA model for hardness performance prediction. The prediction results show good agreement with NIST experimental results.

Keywords:
Rockwell C hardness, HRC, indentation, indenter, finite-element analysis, FEA, simulation

Paper ID: JTE12317J
DOI: 10.1520/JTE12317J
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