Knoop Hardness–Apparent Yield Stress Relationship in Ceramics

Abstract

In Tabor's classical studies of the deformation of metals, the yield stress (Y) and hardness (H) were shown to be related according to H/Y ≈ 3 for complete or fully plastic deformation. Since then it has been anecdotally shown for ceramics that this ratio is <3. Interest exists to explore this further so Hertzian indentation was used to measure the apparent yield stress of numerous ceramics and metals and their results were compared with each material's load‐dependent Knoop hardness. The evaluated ceramics included standard reference materials for hardness (silicon nitride and tungsten carbide), silicon carbide, alumina, and glass. Several steel compositions were also tested for comparison. Knoop hardness measurements at 19.6 N (i.e., toward “complete or fully plastic deformation”), showed that 2 < H/Y < 3 for the metals and 0.8 < H/Y < 1.8 for the glasses and ceramics. Being that H/Y ≠ 3 for the ceramics indicates that Tabor's analysis is either not applicable to ceramics or that full plastic deformation is not achieved with a Knoop indentation or both.

Controlling Interconnected Silver Network Structure in Sol–Gel Nanocomposite Via Shrinkage‐Induced Stress

“…Measurement of crack size on surfaces of different samples can be estimated to yield information on the residual stress. [11] Here, Vickers hardness of the dried gels and the corresponding stress values are shown in Figure 3a. The stress increases from 0.39 to 15.66 MPa when the drying temperature increases from 40 to 80 8C.…”