The theory of indentation and hardness tests

A discussion is given of the indentation of ductile materials by cylindrical punches with conical heads. On the experimental side, experiments have been made with work-hardened and with annealed copper, with penetrations up to nine times the diameter of the punch. It is found that the load rises towards a maximum value which is not approached until the base of the cone has travelled four to five diameters into the copper block. Denoting this maximum load by p0A, where A is the area of the cross-section of the punch, it is found that p0 for a lubricated punch is about twice the hardness, or five times the yield stress, of the work-hardened material. A theoretical method is given for calculating p0, as follows: the pressures pc and p8 required to enlarge a cylindrical and a spherical hole in a material showing any kind of strain hardening can be calculated. It is plausible to assume that p0 should be between pc and p8, and since p8 is only slightly greater than pc, an approximate theoretical estimate of p0 is obtained. This is in good agreement with experiment. In the light of these results a qualitative discussion is given of hardness testing, and it is shown both on experimental and on theoretical grounds that with lubricated cones and work-hardened materials the hardness, i.e. load/indentation area, will not depend much on the angle of the cone unless this is less than 10°.