ISTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY

FACULTY OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

MANUFACTURING ENGINEERING

NAME

: Sertu Yenipazarl

NUMBER : 030050219
GROUP

:D

SUBJECT : Charpy Impact V-Notch Test Report

DATE

: 25 12 2006

CONTENTS

ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION
EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
RESULTS AND GRAPH
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
REFERENCES

ABSTRACT
Impact test is the experiment which gives information about the ductile brittle
transition temperature of the materials. Impact test has two methods mostly used, Charpy and
Izod. Specimens used in these test have a V shape notch. Test machine likes pendulum. It
releases and crashes to the specimen and move up. Then, the potential energy difference gives
us the impact energy of the material.
INTRODUCTION
While making a design, engineers must be careful about the ductile - brittle transition
temperature of the body centered cubic (BCC) structural shape material which is used in. It is
also important that using temperatures of the design. Materials show brittle behavior at low
temperatures, and ductile behavior at high temperatures. Because of this, the usage areas of
the design are important. For example, steel using high strength applications easily in Turkey
cannot be used in very cold countries, because it breaks off. On the other hand, this test gives
the information about the behavior of the material under high velocity loading conditions. It is
also the principle of the impact test. When applied high velocity force, there is not enough
time to moving dislocations and there is no yielding, thus fracture occurs. During the loading
applying, the absorbed energy gives information about the toughness of the material. Brittle
materials absorb less energy, and ductile ones absorb more energy.
Two test methods are used for measuring the absorbed energy during process, Charpy
and Izod. Charpy is the most common one in practice. In processing of the Charpy test, there
is a machine which has a load worked like a pendulum. This load has a potential energy and
and hold on to the top of the machine. The specimen is taken a place in the bottom, and this
load releases and breaks the specimen. Then, it moves up less than the starting position. After
that, the energy difference between the starting and finishing point are measured and gives the
impact energy of the material.
Impact energy can be changed from material to material. If the specimen has standart
dimensions, it is changed by lattice type of materials, testing temperatures, thermo
mechanical history, chemical composition of materials, and degree of strain hardening.
EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE
For Charpy test, the test machine and the specimens were prepared. Specimens must
have standart dimensions which is 55 mm long and 10 mm thickness. There is a notch in the
middle of the specimen 2mm long and 45 0 between the faces. Specimens also must have

different temperatures for calculating the DBTT of the testing material. Because of this, there
are specimens in the temperature of -55 0C, -35 0C, -15 0C, 0 0C and 25 0C. (These
temperatures obtained orderly from cold to hot.)
After that, load pendulum took a place at the top of the machine and pointer put in
zero position and pendulum released when there is no specimen for calculating the missing
energy for the test. It found 6 J. Then, pendulum held at the top again and -55 0C specimen
placed in the bottom, which pendulum hits and breaks it. Notch is the middle of the supports
and load pendulum. After all the conditions were ready, pendulum released and broke the
specimen. Then, the broken specimen is investigated and made a decision about the toughness
of the material by looking to the impact energy and the fracture surfaces conditions, and the
notes were taken. The same procedure was applied to the other specimens which had different
temperatures, and need values are calculating for plotting the graph of impact energy versus
temperature.
RESULTS AND GRAPH
After applying the test all of the specimens, these results were measured. During the
calculating, the missing energy 6 J was subtracted from the other test values for finding the
true results. (Machine pointer showed the energy in kpm form, so values are multiply by 10
for calculating the energy in J form)
Test Temperature

Impact Energy

-55 0C

14 J

-35 0C

14 J

-15 0C

84 J

0 0C

96 J

25 0C

172 J

Then a graph was plotted to these results, and DBTT was calculated according to the
graph and results at the below.

If we say E to impact energy,

Eave = (Emax + Emin) / 2
= (90+ 14) / 2
= 52 J
Emax is about 90 J about the graph for normal Impact Energy graph, because after the
0 0C there is a high increasing, and makes the graph abnormal.
As a result, the DBTT temperature of the material is about 24 0C.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
There are two ways to lower the DBTT, reducing carbon content or rising manganese
content of the steel. If the carbon content is raised, steel become brittle and the calculated
impact energy of the steel become less. Thus, ductile brittle transition temperature gets high.
This is also can be seen on the impact energy versus temperature diagram for different
% carbon values. Also, the manganese content into the steel makes an effect on to the DBTT.
When the content of manganese is increased, DBTT is also getting lower as in carbon content.
The reason for this lowering, adding manganese takes a place as interstitial atoms and makes
the dislocations movement harder, so the DBTT is getting lower.

From Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Otherswho Heat Treat and Forge Steel, p.47

Effects of the manganese to the DBTT

There are three basic factors which contribute to brittle fracture of steels, low service
temperature, rapid crash of load and specimen, notch. These are needed for the brittle fracture.
Beside these three factors, the lattice type and content of the material affect the brittle
fracture. Lattice must be BCC style, and specimen has high carbon or manganese content.
During the hitting of the specimen and load, stress has occurred around the notch. This
stress occurs in all types of the specimens (thick or thin), because the material wants to yield
and change the place. But it cannot do this that it wants, and stresses occur. This stress values
are changed with the type of the notch. If the notch type changes from U to V, the stress is
getting higher.

Charpy test is mainly used for calculating the DBTT and the toughness of the material
which are very important for designing. Moreover, Charpy impact V- notch test has standard
names. In ASTM standards, it is called ASTM E23 (Standard Test Methods for Notched Bar
Impact Testing of Metallic Materials), and in TS standards, it is called TS EN 10045-1.
Impact energy is the absorbed energy by the specimen during failure. On the other
hand, fracture toughness is the ability of the material containing flaws to withstand applied
load.
The plain carbon steels are annealed that were slow cooled from the austenite region
so that the microstructures of these steels are mixtures of ferrite and pearlite. One sees that the
behavior is very sensitive to %C in the steels. At all compositions there is a transition from
ductile to brittle failure as the temperature drops, but at %C levels of 0.11 %C and below the
transition is much sharper and the impact energy is considerably higher for the high
temperature ductile mode of fracture. For steels, an impact energy value of 15 ft-lbs is often
taken as the onset value for brittle failure.

References
-

Askeland D. R. & Phul P. P., 2005, The Science and Engineering of Materials, 5th edition

Laboratory Manual Book, 2006

Verhoeven J. D., March, 2005, Metallurgy of Steel for Bladesmiths & Otherswho Heat
Treat and Forge Steel

https://www.tse.org.tr/turkish/abone/StandardDetay.asp?STDNO=16370

http://ts.nist.gov/Standards/scopes/2006540.htm

http://www.key-to-steel.com/Articles/Art136.htm