METALLURGY LAB 2024

Lab Manual
List of Experiments
1. Specimen preparation and identification
2. Sand strength & Permeability test Cycle of
3. Heat treatment of steels & Hardenability test experiments
4. Mechanical Properties (Tensile, Fatigue & Impact Test)
5. Project assignment for each group – a group should consist of 4/5 members.
The title of the project is ‘material selection’. This will help you understand the course
overall. The project is to select any mechanical equipment (preferably) or Civil
structures or any other equipment/system/device of your choice and is expected to do the
following activities
• Identify the crucial parts of the selected equipment
• Identify the parts’ main functions
• Identify the required properties of the parts
• Select the suitable material for the identified part in the equipment
scientifically. i.e. Justify that the identified material satisfies the
functional requirements.
Finally, submit your project as a group in a poster format, which should be laminated A3
paper size.

Note 1: The marking scheme for the project includes poster submission (clarity/aesthetic
presentation, technical content, project presentation and viva voce)
Note 2: The marking scheme for lab exercise include in-lab observations, Q&As and lab
report.
Note 3: If necessary, any other relevant information will be given to you F2F and/or
posted in Moodle.
Note 4: For any questions asked in the lab manual under each experiment, answer them in
just one or two pages at the maximum. IT SHOULD BE OF YOUR OWN WORDS;
though you could refer to any text (References should be cited properly), please don’t
copy-paste; otherwise, it will be penalised under plagiarism (refer to course outline).

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 Specimen Identification

Procedure: follow the specimen preparation technique, however, choose the etchant
according to the specimen given and view it under the microscope.

Result:
• Notify the microstructure observed, on which identify the given specimen.
• Write the theory or importance of micrography or metallography on the identified
specimen in engineering.
• Safety precautions to be taken during this exercise

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 Heat Treatment of Steels

Procedure:
1. Four small cylindrical workpieces of the given steel specimen are heated in the
muffle furnace to its austenitising temperature of 8400C and maintained for 30
minutes.
2. The hot pieces are taken out, and one of them is quenched in water and one in oil.
One of the remaining two pieces is allowed to cool to room temperature in the air,
and the other is buried in the sand.
3. After the pieces are cooled to room temperature in different cooling media, they
are taken out and cleaned.
4. The hardness of each specimen is determined on the case at different points of the
specimen using the Brinell hardness testing machine.

Results:
➢ Write a theory of heat treatment processes
➢ Tabulate the hardness results obtained with the different cooling media for the
given specimens
➢ Draw the bar chart for the same aforementioned and comment on what you
understand from this experiment.
➢ Safety precautions to be taken during this exercise

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 Hardenability Test

Procedure:
1. The Jominy specimen (shown in fig. 1) is heated in the muffle furnace to its
austenitising temperature of 8400C and maintained for 30 minutes.
2. Then the specimen is turned from furnace to Jominy apparatus using tongs and
put on its holder followed by allowing the water to quench the end of the
specimen
3. The velocity of water sprayed at the end of a standard specimen is to be
maintained constant throughout the process of cooling
4. This quenching process continues until the specimen attains room temperature.
5. Remove the Jominy specimen from the fixture and grind a flat on the side of the
specimen.
6. Mark points on the ground surface at a constant interval of 1.6 mm up to 60 mm from
the quenched end, as shown in Figure 2.
7. Take the hardness reading using a Brinell hardness testing machine on the interval
marked on the specimen

Figure 1 Jominy end quench fixture (1” = 25.4 mm)

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Fig. 2. Hardness vs distance

Results:
➢ Write a theory of hardenability processes.
➢ Tabulate the hardness readings against the distance from the quenching end.
➢ Plot useful graphs are resulting from the experiment and comment on them.
➢ What is the difference between hardness and hardenability?
➢ Safety precautions are to be taken during this exercise.

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 Sand Strength Test

Procedure:

The following gives the procedure for compression testing. Take some time to understand
the working of the CRG Universal Sand Strength Testing Machine.

1.) Take 0.152kg moist sand. Fill into the rammer tube. Drop the rammer (7kg) three
times from a fixed height of 10cm. The length of the specimen required for the
compression strength is 4.9cm.
2.) Remove the specimen. Use the rammer to push the specimen up the tube, then
carefully take it out.
3.) Take 0.152 kg of dry sand and prepare an identical sample as 1 and 2 above.
4.) Place the sand specimen on the two support pins of the test attachment.
5.) Turn the machine’s handwheel clockwise and compress the specimen at a slow and
constant rate until failure.
6.) Record the load reading on the pressure gauge at failure
7.) The compressive strength was found by dividing the maximum load at failure by
the cross-sectional area of the specimen.
8.) Repeat steps 4 to 7 for the dry specimen.
9.) Note your results and observations.

Discussion:

1.) What is the typical theoretical range of foundry sand compression strength values?
2.) How does sand compression strength affect the application of sand in industries,
mainly in solidification (casting process)?
3.) What are the desired properties for foundry sand?
4.) Write the theory or importance of sand strength test in engineering application
relevant to metallurgy
5.) Safety precautions to be taken during this exercise

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 Permeability Test

Procedure:

The falling head permeability setup is shown in Figure 1. The permeameter is a commercial
product consisting of a standard xx m3 compaction mould fixed with a base plate containing
a porous stone and an outlet tube. The cover is fixed with a vent valve and connection for
attaching a water supply. Three different size standpipes are available: burettes attached to
the permeameter using a pinch clamp on the rubber hose. A meter stick is used to obtain
the initial and final heads, Ho and Hf, respectively.

The equation to be used for this test is:

2.303  a  L  Ho 
k=  log  
At  Hf 

Where:

k= permeability coefficient (cm/s)

A = cross-sectional area of soil sample. (cm2)
a = cross sectional area of glass pipe (cm2)
Ho = starting head (cm)
Hf = ending head (cm)
L= length of soil specimen. (cm)
T = total time for falling head. (s)

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 1) Weigh the permeameter mould without the base plate and porous stone attached.
Also, measure the inside mould diameter and height to calculate the cross-
sectional area and sample length, as well as the cross-sectional area of the burette.
2) Prepare the sand sample with the required moisture content. Note the weight of
the empty container, the weight of the container with dry sand and the weight
with water added to the sand.
3) Put the sand sample prepared in the permeameter mould through the extension
collar and compact it with the help of the rammer. Remove the extension collar
after compaction and trim the excess sand level with the mould top. Note the
weight of the compacted sand plus the mould.
4) Remove the base plate and place the bigger porous plate at the bottom, replace the
compacted sand onto the porous plate and put the smaller porous plate on the top.
5) Assemble the top cover of the mould and secure it properly.
6) Choose a suitable diameter glass pipe. Connect the permeability mould containing
the sand samples through the top nozzle inlet provided on the drainage cap of the
mould to the glass burette. Tighten the Hoffman pinch cock on the plastic tub
and fill the glass standpipe with water.
7) Open the inlet and outlet to saturate the sand specimen and remove all air. Once the
steady flow is achieved (the permeameter should now be free of air bubbles), close
both valves and fill the glass standpipe with water to a convenient height. Record
this initial height as Ho.
8) Open the inlet and outlet valve and start timing the test. Allow water to flow through
the sample until the desired known final water height, Hf. Note the time and initial
and final heights.
9) Calculate the coefficients of permeability using the given equation.
10) Refill the glass burette and repeat step 8 twice. Take an average of the values.
11) Note your results and observations.

Discussion:

1) How does sand permeability affect the quality of solidification (casting)?

2) What other engineering applications apart from the solidification process require
knowledge of sand permeability?
3) What is the theoretical (value) range of permeability for cast-iron solidification? Is
there any difference in your measured value to the theoretical value? If so, what
factors could cause the difference?
4) Write the theory or importance of permeability test in engineering application
relevant to metallurgy
5) Safety precautions to be taken during this exercise

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 Tensile Test

Procedure:
1. Initial measurement of the specimens to be carried out, such as gauge length (Lo),
diameter (Do).
2. The tensile test is carried out by gripping the ends of the specimen in a respective
top and bottom gripper of UTM
3. Apply the pulling load onto the specimen till it fractures.
4. During the tensile test, the tensile load, as well as the elongation of a specimen,
should be observed, which helps in plotting the stress-strain curve as shown in the
above figure
5. After a fracture, the two pieces of the broken specimen are placed as if fixed
together, and the distance (Lf) between two gauge marks and the diameter at the
place of fracture is measured.

Properties to be calculated:
1. yield strength = load at yield point/A0
2. ultimate tensile strength (UTS) = ultimate load, Pmax/A0
L f − L0
3. % Elongation =  100
L0

A0 − A f
4. % Reduction in the area =  100
A0

5. Modulus of elasticity, E = Stress at any point within the elastic limit/strain at that
point
D02
6. A0 =
4
Where A0 is the original area of cross-section, D0 is the original diameter before
deformation, L0 is the gauge length before deformation, Lf is the fracture length, and Df is
the fracture diameter (refer below fig).

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 (a)

Results:
➢ Tabulate the observed reading such as load applied and elongation in length and
calculate the stress and strain, termed as engineering stress and engineering strain
➢ Plot the graph for stress vs strain and note the point such as yield, ultimate and
breaking and calculate the corresponding strength
➢ Also, calculate the other parameters like % elongation, % area reduction and
modulus of elasticity
➢ Based on the graph above and calculated parameters, comment on your
understanding.
➢ Write the theory of tensile testing
➢ Safety precautions to be taken during this exercise

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 Fatigue Test
Procedure:
➢ The fatigue tester unit shown below is used for the experiment.

➢ The motor is connected on one side to a counter mechanism, which can record up
to 7 digits. Attached to the shaft at the other end is a fixture.

➢ Measure the dimensions of the given specimen, although given as per ASTM
standard (as shown in the figure below), and inspect the surface roughness.

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➢ Attach one end of the specimen to the chuck at the load-bearing end and slide the
other end into the chuck at the main shaft.

➢ Measure the distance from the neck to the specimen’s contact surface with the
bearing.

➢ Apply the given load as shown in the figure below.

➢ The revolution counter was reset to zero, and the motor was switched on

➢ The motor was then switched off as soon as the fracture occurred

➢ The broken specimen was removed, and the results were recorded

➢ The above steps were then repeated for different loads to plot the S-N curve

The specimen loading arrangement results in a constant bending moment PL/2

over the test length of the specimen.

Note: The applied bending moment (given in Kg cm) requires converting to SI

units.

Where: P - Load applied over the specimen kg.

L – Distance from neck to specimen’s contact point with bearing

Now,
Bending moment (𝑀𝑏 ) = 𝑃𝐿/2

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 L * P * 32 N
The bending stress for a load P (N) is: = [ ]
 * d 3 mm 2
Where,
d – Diameter of the neck

Results:
➢ Calculate the applied load and determine the bending stress.
➢ From your understanding of this test, could fatigue performance primarily
improve by design means or by metallurgical means – justify?
➢ Would this information be sufficient to find the fatigue ratio if the same material
was subjected to tensile and fatigue tests? Explain.
➢ Write a theory of fatigue testing.
➢ Safety precautions are to be taken during this exercise.

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 IMPACT TEST
Procedure:

1. Measure the length (l), breadth (b), & depth (d) of the given specimen.
2. Measure the position of the notch (i.e. groove) from one end (lg), depth of the
groove (dg) and top width of the groove (wg) in the given specimen.
3. Lift the pendulum and keep it in the position meant for Charpy/Izod test.
4. Adjust the pointer to coincide with the scale's initial position (i.e. maximum
value).
5. Release the pendulum using the lever and note down the initial reading in the
scale.
6. Repeat steps 3 and 4.
7. Place the specimen vertically upwards such that the shorter distance between one
end of the specimen and groove will be the protruding length, and the groove in
the specimen should face the striking end of the hammer. (For Charpy: Place the
specimen centrally over the supports such that the groove is opposite to the
striking face.)
8. Rerelease the pendulum using the lever and note down the final reading in the
scale.
9. Find the impact strength of the given specimen by: Impact strength = (Final scale
reading – Initial scale reading)

Observation:
1. Material of the given specimen =
2. Type of notch (i.e. groove) =
3. Length of the specimen, l = mm
4. Breadth of the specimen, b = mm
5. Depth of the specimen, d = mm
6. Position of groove from one end, (lg) = mm
7. Depth of groove (dg) = mm
8. Width of groove (wg) = mm
9. Initial scale reading = kg.m
10. Final scale reading = kg.m

Result:
• The impact strength of the given specimen is --------- Kg.m
• From the tensile and impact test, you would understand that both tests can
determine toughness. Which test value would you give importance to practical
design purpose and why?
• Safety precautions to be taken during this exercise

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 Project Assignment

Objective: The materials selection process is choosing the suitable material for the correct
application.

Process Structure Properties Performance Application

The above figure represents how the material is chosen for a particular application. By
doing this project, you will systematically learn to select or identify the suitable material
for the correct application. The details will be discussed comprehensively in the selection
of materials chapter. However, the following are the steps minimum expected to
complete the project.

Following are the core activities to be done to complete the project:

1. Identify the equipment/machine tool/machine elements etc.
2. Identify the essential parts of the chosen equipment.
3. Now, you can derive its functions and working conditions for the identified parts.
4. From the functions, you can identify the required properties for that part.
5. From the required properties, you can study and suggest the best possible material
and its processing steps to attain those properties.

Note 1: Submit your project poster in laminated A3 format before the end of the 11th
week of this semester. Please do originally and ask for any clarifications to any of the
CV/MM212 teaching staff at any time.
Note 2: Please do not operate any lab equipment or machines without the
supervision of any authorised person.

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