Strength of material Lab

Brinell hardness test

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CONTENT
1. Objective
2. Introduction
3. Equipment
4. Procedure
5. Calculation
6. Results
7. Discussion
8. Conclusion

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OBJECTIVE
The objective of this experiment is to determine the Brinell
hardness number of piece of metal using Brinell hardness
tester.

INTRODUCTION
Hardness is defined as the resistance of a material to
permanent deformation such as indentation, wear,
abrassion, scratch. Hardness testing enables you to
evaluate the strength, ductility and wear resistance of a
material, which can determine whether a material is
suitable for the purpose you require. The hardness of a
metallic material can be defined as its resistance to plastic
deformation caused by a force applied through an
indenter. Brinell Hardness Testing is a nondestructive
testing method that determines the hardness of a metal by
measuring the size of an indentation left by an indenter. At
a defined ball diameter and test force, larger indents left in
the surface by the Brinell Hardness Testing Machine
indicate a softer material. The indenter on a Brinell
Hardness Testing machine is spherical and leaves a
rounded indent on the tested material. The indenter is
usually made of tungsten carbide. Brinell hardness
number (BHN) is obtained by the ratio of the calculated
load and
the spherical area of the Indentation or Impression made
on the Dspecimen by the corresponding Indentor Ball. The

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test consists of forcing a steel ball of diameter ‘D’ under a
load ‘P’ into the specimen for a specified amount of time
and measuring the mean diameter ‘d‘ of the impression
left on the surface after removal of the load. The Brinell
Hardness Number (BHN) is then calculated as load
divided by the surface area of indention.
The applied load is determined through the following
equation:

C=
Depth of Indentation (h) is determined with this equation:

h=
The Brinell Hardness Number is determined with the
following equation:

HB =
√
Where
 HB = Brinell Hardness Number (kg f / mm2)
 F = applied load in kilogram-force (kg f)
 D = diameter of indenter (mm)
 d = diameter of indentation (mm)
 h = depth of indentaion (mm)
 C = degree of loading (kg f / mm2)

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EQUIPMENT
1. Brinell Hardness Testing Machine

2. Brinell microscope 3. Ball Indentor of diameter

2.5mm

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PROCEDURE
1. Switch the Brinell Hardness Testing Machine on by
using the switch button on the back of the machine
2. Pull the hand lever into load position.
3. Select suitable indenter & weights according to the
scale.
4. Place the specimen on testing table anvil.
5. Turn the hand wheel in clockwise direction to raise the
anvil and continue turning until the surface of the
specimen touches indenter and the machine beeps once.
Then continue turning slowly until the reading on the
screen reaches the final point and the machine starts
beeping.
6. Wait for the machine to apply the load and when the
work is done and the machine stops working, turn the
hand wheel in counter-clockwise direction and pull the
hand lever back to the unload position.
7. Remove the specimen from the platform and note down
the diameter of the indentation using Brinell microscope.
8. Calculate BHN using the appropriate formula.

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CALCULATION
At first, the applied load is measured by multiplying the
degree of loading of steel alloy (which is 30 kg f /mm2) by
the squared diameter of the indenter:

C=
2
F=C×D
2
F = 30 × (2.5)

F = 187.5 kg f
Then the Brinell hardness neumber is found using the
following equation:

HB =
√

HB =
√

HB = 206.629 kg f / mm2
Depth of Indentation (h) is determined with this equation:

h=

h=

h = 0.115 mm

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RESULTS
Table 1. result of Brinell hardness test
Material Degree Diameter of Depth of Diameter of Applied HB
of indenter D indentation indentation load F (kgf
loading C (mm) h (mm) d (mm) (kg f) /mm2)
(kg
f/mm2)
Steel 30 2.5 0.115 1.05 187.5 206.629
alloy

DISSCUSION
Q1 / How does brinell hardness test actually measure
hardness?
Answer: Brinell hardness is determined by forcing a
hardened steel or carbide ball of known diameter under a
known load into a surface and measuring the diameter of
the indentation with a microscope.
Q2 / What is the limitation on the thickness of specimens
for a hardness test?
Answer: 1. The thickness of the specimen should be at
least seven times the depth of the indentation to allow
unrestricted plastic flow below the indenter.

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2. The edge of the indentation should be at least three
times the diameter of the indentation from the edge of the
test piece.

Q3 / Why indentation is prevented near to the edge or near

to the neighbouring indentations in hardness test?
Answer: For hardness test results to be representative of a
material the material should be effectively homogeneous.
This means that the material's properties should be the
same regardless of position.
Hardness tests conducted near an edge or too close to a
previous test invalidate this. In the case of the edge the
material will appear softer as the edge will mean the flow
of the material towards the edge is not constrained. This
will increase the penetration of the hardness inventor
which creates a larger defect and an apparent decrease in
hardness.
Q4 / What surface condition is necessary for Brinell
hardness test?
Answer:In the Brinell hardness test, it is required to ensure
that the surface of the material to be tested is smooth, flat
and free of impurities.

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CONCLUSION
The objective of this experiment was to find the hardness
of a steel sample using the Brinell Hardness Test. From
the results obtained by performing this experiment, one
can conclude that the objectives were accomplished
despite having some small sources of error. The small
percent error could have been due to one of the following
reasons: 1. The surface of the sample could have been
rough and unprepared for the xeperiment. 2. Another
reason could be the measurement of identation. Since a
theoretical value of the brinell hardness number of the
sample was not given, the percent error is unknown. In
conclusion, although there were some sources of error
that affected the final HB number of the sample, the
percent error should be very low and the final results are
acceptable.

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