Simulation and Prediction of Hardness Performance of Rockwell Diamond Indenters Using Using Finite-Element Analysis

Published

July 1, 2002

Author(s)

Li Ma, Samuel R. Low III, J Zhou, Jun-Feng Song, Roland deWit

Abstract

The difficulty in manufacturing Rockwell diamond indenters to the required geometric specifications has resulted in most commercially manufactured indenters to vary in shape from one to another. This difference in shape is through to be a major contributor to the Rockwell C scale hardness measurement uncertainty. In this paper, a finite-element analysis (FEA) is used to simulate the Rockwell hardness measurement process. The influences of the indenter's geometry, including tip radius, cone angle, and form error on Rockwell hardness tests are analyzed by the FEA model, and further verified by experimental results. A new method is developed to directly input the Rockwell indenters profiles into the FEA model for hardness performance prediction. The prediction results show good agreement with NISTexperimental results.

Citation

Journal of Testing and Evaluation

Volume

30

Issue

No. 4

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

analytical modeling, cone angle, diamond indenter, FEA, finite element analysis, form error, indentation, Rockwell hardness, tip radius

Citation

Ma, L. , Low, S. , Zhou, J. , Song, J. and deWit, R. (2002), Simulation and Prediction of Hardness Performance of Rockwell Diamond Indenters Using Using Finite-Element Analysis, Journal of Testing and Evaluation (Accessed October 18, 2025)