Yarmouk University

Hijjawi Faculty of Engineering Technology

Mechanical Engineering Department
Strength of Material Lab( )
Experiment No. Impact Test
By Dr.Ammar Alrousan
Objectives:-

1. Evaluation of fracture surface characteristics

2. Influence of notch shape on the notched bar impact work
3. Influence of materials on the notched bar impact work
4. To find the relative toughness of some metals.
5. To interpret obtained experimental data for the selection of engineering materials

Introduction: -

The tensile test is normally performed at a low strain rate, at which the specimen is very
slowly loaded and elongated. When a material is subjected to a sudden, intense blow, in
which the strain rate is extremely rapid, the material may behave in a much more brittle
manner than is observed in the tensile test. Impact testing techniques were established so
as to determine the fracture characteristics of materials at high loading rates. It was
realized that the results of laboratory tensile tests (at low loading rates) could not predict
fracture behavior. For example, under some circumstances normally ductile metals
fracture suddenly and with very little plastic deformation under high loading rates. Impact
tests are used to indicate the toughness of a material and particularly its capacity for
resisting mechanical shock. Brittleness, resulting from a variety of causes, is often not
revealed during a tensile test. For example, nickel – chromium constructional steels suffer
from a defect known as temper brittleness. This is caused by faulty heat-treatment, yet a
tensile test-piece derived from a satisfactorily treated material and one produced from a
similar material but which has been incorrectly heat-treated might both show
approximately the same tensile strengths and elongations. In an impact test, however, the
difference would be apparent; the unsatisfactory material would prove to be extremely
brittle as compared with the correctly treated one, which would be tough. The energy
absorbed at fracture is generally related to the area under the stress-strain curve, which is
termed as toughness in some references, Figure 1. Brittle materials have a small area
under the stress-strain curve (due to its limited toughness) and as a result, little energy is
absorbed during impact failure. As plastic deformation capability of the materials
(ductility) increases, the area under the curve also increases and the absorbed energy and
respectively toughness increase. The behavior of the ferric steel (low carbon, 0.001%
carbons) under notched condition can be predicted from their properties as revealed by
tensile test, whereas, the behavior of the large group of non-ferrous metals and alloys and
the austenitic ( high carbon 2%) carbon can be revealed by the impact test .
 The basic objective of impact test is to evaluate the impact work which is defined as the
amount of energy released when the material is subjected to a sudden force and it is given
a unit (N.m).

Figure1b: Ductile-to-Brittle
Figure 1a: Toughness of
Transition Temperature (DBTT)
.different steel type

Types of Impact Tests:

1) Izod test: the impact load is applied to cantilever with a notch at its base.
2) Charpy test: the impact load strikes the center of simply supported sample; the
sample is notched along of center of tension free.

Fig.2. illustrates the two common impact tests.

1. Izod Test:
 The specimen is tested in a cantilever mode.
 The specimen is firmly clamped in a vice with
the prepared notch levels with the edge of the vice.
 The impact blow is delivered on the same side as the notch.

2. Charpy Test:
 The specimen is tested as a simply supported beam.
 The edge of the pendulum strikes at mid‐span directly behind the milled notch.
 The standard Charpy‐V specimen, illustrated in Fig.3. is 55mm long, 10mm
square and has a 2mm deep notch with a tip radius of 0.25mm machined one face.
For both tests, the specimen is broken by a single overload event due to the impact of the
pendulum. A stop pointer is used to record how far the pendulum swings back up after
fracturing the specimen. The impact toughness of a metal is determined by measuring the
energy absorbed in the fracture of the specimen. This is simply obtained by noting the
height at which the pendulum is released and the height to which the pendulum swings
after it has struck the specimen. The height of the pendulum times the weight of the
pendulum produces the potential energy and the difference in potential energy of the
pendulum at the start and the end of the test is equal to the absorbed energy.

Fig.3. Charpy‐V, Key-hole and U notch specimens

 Fig.4. impact testing machine (JBS-300B).

Experimental procedures:-

1-Take a specimen of the standard [BS EN 10045‐1] and the shape shown in fig.3.
3-Measure the specimen dimensions and check whether they satisfy the specific standard.
4-Fix the specimen on the Impact Test machine in Charpy holding method.
5-Raise the pendulum hammer of the impact machine to its initial upper height and fix it.
6-Put the pointer of the absorbed energy scale at its initial position.
7-Release the pendulum to strike the specimen and rise to another high, and notice the reading
of the absorbed energy scale.
8-This reading is in Joules.
9- Notice the fracture appearance of the specimen and the shear fracture area.
Precaution: - in this experiment, be careful when dealing with the hammer to prevent any
injuries.

Discussion and Conclusions: -

Toughness of a material is an important property of a material. Toughness depends on the
amount of energy absorbed by the material. Therefore, the toughness shows variation under
different temperatures. The toughness will increase with temperature and when the
temperature is low the toughness of the material will decrease. In impact test metallic samples
in three different temperatures, are tested by fracturing them. And the toughness reading can
be obtained using the scale in terms of Joules.
Temperature can change the behavior of steel from brittle to ductile from addition of heat and
from ductile to brittle by removing the heat. The amount of energy required to break a ductile
material is greater than that for a brittle material.

Table 1: Impact test results: -

 Notch type Percent Ductility
Sample Sample details Temperature Broken or Toughness
(%)
No (°C) unbroken reading (j)

1 Mild Steel V groove

- :References
Callister Jr, W. D., & Rethwisch, D. G. (2020). Fundamentals of materials science. and
.engineering: an integrated approach. John Wiley & Sons
Metals Handbook, 9th ed., Mechanical Testing, Vol. 8, 1990 .
G. Dieter, Mechanical Metallurgy, SI ed., Mc Graw Hill, 1986 .
N. Dowling, Mechanical Behavior of Materials, Prentice Hall, 1993 .