Microhardness, Indentation Size Effect and Real Hardness of Plastically Deformed Austenitic Hadfield Steel

Microhardness testing is a widely used method for measuring the hardness property of small-scale materials. However, pronounced indentation size effect (ISE) causes uncertainties when the method is used to estimate the real hardness. In this paper, three austenitic Hadfield steel samples of different plastic straining conditions were subjected to Vickers microhardness testing, using a range of loads from 10 to 1000 g. The obtained results reveal that the origin of ISE is derived from the fact, that the indentation load P and the resultant indent diagonal d do not obey Kick’s law (P = A · d2). Instead, the P and d parameters obey Meyer’s power law (P = A · dn) with n < 2. The plastically strained samples showed not only significant work hardening, but also different ISE significance, as compared to the non-deformed bulk steel. After extensive assessment of several theoretical models, including the Hays-Kendall model, Li-Bradt model, Bull model and Nix-Gao model, it was found that the real hardness can be determined by Vickers microhardness indentation and subsequent analysis using the Nix-Gao model. The newly developed method was subsequently utilised in two case studies to determine the real hardness properties of sliding worn surfaces and the subsurface hardness profile.