The Modified Rockwell Test: A New Probe for Mechanical Properties of Metals

In the present work a novel methodology is proposed, based on the combination of the Rockwell and the Vickers tests, to provide estimates of the mechanical properties of metal substrates. The analysis is based on some novel invariants obtained from the finite element solution of the Vickers indentation (the imprint diagonal relates to the maximum indentation depth and the residual indentation depth with the average pressure and the elastic modulus). Several other useful results are discussed and experiments are performed with a modified Rockwell apparatus on steel and aluminium alloys. The results are important for the interpretation of micro indentation tests. Inverting the indentation data, reasonably accurate results can be obtained for strain hardening properties for “power law” behaviour, whereas more complex strain hardening would require further investigation.