1. Background

1.1. Technical field

The present invention relates to a method for measuring Young's modulus according to the introductory portion of the attached claim 1.

1.2. State of the art

Elastic deformation of metallic materials occurs at relatively low specific loads and is distinguished by mainly three features:

- The material reverts (springs back) to its original shape upon load relief.

- Stress and strain are in linear proportion to one another (Hooke's law)

- There is often minimal, in this context less than 1%, relative strain.

Young's modulus, the so-called elasticity modulus E, is a measure of the rigidity of a material and depends mainly on the atomic bonding, crystallographic structure and composition of the material. The greater E, the smaller the elastic strain at a given stress.

Hooke's law in equation form reads

σ _r

E = ε _x

where ε _x is the relative strain in % and σ _x is the stress. E is thus the slope of the linear relationship between σ _x and ε _x and is often determined by uniaxial tensile test. The stress, i.e. the specific load, is calculated as

F, ^σ _x = -

where Fx is the load (or force) in N, and A is the cross-sectional area in m .

Hooke's law, i.e. the linear relationship, applies very well to steel. Such is however not the case with cast iron in general and grey cast iron in particular, for which the elasticity modulus is not constant but increases with the stress. The reason is that carbon is present in the form of graphite distributed in a matrix of iron. Graphite largely lacks tensile strength, with the result that tensile loading renders it comparable with voids.

Tensile loading, as in the tensile testing of test specimens to determine an elasticity modulus for cast iron, e.g. grey cast iron, results, owing to the present of graphite, in the effective loadbearing cross-sectional area being smaller than the nominal loadbearing cross-sectional area, in local plasticising of the matrix close to the graphite, and in cracking of the graphite.

Upon load relief after such tensile loading, the portion of the matrix which has not plasticised reverts to its original form, exhibiting fully elastic properties. The cracked graphite partly closes up again, resulting in that portion of the material likewise partly reverting to its original form. The plastic deformation, which persists and is irreversible in tension, results in a certain permanent change of form of the material, which means that upon load relief to zero stress a certain permanent elongation will remain. Upon renewed loading, the stress/strain process σlε thus starts at that elongation. The stress/strain process is also not the same in load

application as in load relief, as the pattern of a load application and relief cycle looks like that of a hysteresis loop.

Against this background, determining a well-defined and relevant E value for cast iron is a problem, not least for grey cast iron and also for a so-called nodular iron (i.e. cast iron containing spheroidal graphite) and for cast iron containing compact graphite.

Fig. 1 illustrates four different methods used. Method a) uses the slope of the σl ε curve at the origin point, i.e. without loading. At that stage of the process no plasticising and no cracking have occurred. Method b), the tangent method, uses the slope of the curve at a particular point on the curve which corresponds to E at a certain stress. Method c), the secant method, uses the slope of a line between the origin point and any desired point on the curve, thereby arriving at a mean value of E for stresses between nil and the stress at the point selected. Method d), a variant of the secant method, uses the slope of a line between two points on the curve other than the origin point and provides a mean value of E between the two stresses to which those two points correspond.

A fifth method (Fig. 2) applies mainly to nodular iron and uses a hyperbolic function in the form of εlσ plotted against ε , resulting in a relationship with a steep initial portion followed by a plateau which is itself followed by a further rising portion, where the initial portion represents load application, fastening play etc., the plateau portion elastic deformation and the final portion plastic deformation beyond the elastic limit of the test specimen. E is taken as the inverse of the mean of the εlσ values at the points where the plateau portion begins and ends.

Also proposed for nodular iron is a method (Fig. 3) whereby loading is applied to the material two or three times with no load relief between applications, after which E is measured on the last curve obtained, using any of the methods described above.

All of the methods described above have disadvantages, including that the E determined relates to very specific conditions and in most cases pertains to material which differs substantially from material in actual use.

The object of the present invention is to provide, mainly for cast iron, a method for elasticity modulus measurement which arrives at a well-defined and relevant value applicable to material actually in use, across a wide load range.

2. Summary of the invention

The above object is achieved by a method according to the attached claim 1.

Further advantages are achieved with the embodiments according to the independent claims.

3. Brief description of the drawings

The invention is described below in more detail with reference to examples of embodiments and the attached drawings, in which

- Fig. 1 depicts schematically four known methods a) - d) for determining an elasticity modulus value E from a stress/strain chart, where E corresponds to the slope of the respective line in the chart, .

- Fig. 2 depicts schematically a fifth method for determining an elasticity modulus value E, using a hyperbolic representation εlσ of stress σ and strain ε , where E corresponds to the inverse of the mean value of εlσ on a central plateau portion of the resulting curve,

- Fig. 3 depicts schematically a sixth method for determining an elasticity modulus value E from a stress/strain chart, where E is determined from the second or third load curve for a given test specimen by any of the five methods described above,

- in Fig. 4, the lower curve depicts schematically the results of measuring the elasticity modulus E according to the present invention, and the upper curve the results of measurements substantially according to the aforesaid sixth method, and

- Fig. 5 depicts schematically a load application cycle according to the present invention.

4. Description of preferred embodiments

According to the present invention, the method for determining an elasticity modulus thus entails tensile loading of material to two different stress levels 1, 2, in this case 150 and 100 MPa respectively, as illustrated in Fig. 5, whereby the method is intended and suited to metallic material which has at least one precipitation phase distributed in a metallic matrix and a non-linear stress/strain relationship within a portion of the relationship which corresponds substantially to elastic deformation.

Fig. 5 thus depicts a stress/strain relationship corresponding to a preferred load application cycle according to a preferred embodiment of the method according to the invention.

As a first step 3, the material is loaded to a limit stress σ _max corresponding to an expected maximum load and is thereafter fully relieved of load. This is followed by loading the material again at least once, but preferably three times 4, 5, 6, to a working stress σ _op which corresponds to an expected working load during use of the material, with complete removal of load from the material after each such load step.

From the stress/strain relationship pertaining to the sixth load step 6, an elasticity modulus is then determined in a substantially known manner, preferably by any one of the four methods described above (Figs. 1 and 2).

According to a preferred embodiment, the elasticity modulus is determined as the slope of the stress/strain relationship 6, i.e. the slope of the tangent 7 of the relationship at the working stress σ _op .

It is particularly preferred here that the determination of an elasticity modulus from the stress/strain relationship be based on the load relief portion of the stress/strain relationship, which is represented in the embodiment last mentioned above, by the slope of the tangent 7 at the working stress σ _op of the load relief portion of the relationship which is used as a measure of the elasticity modulus, as illustrated in Fig. 5.

The results depicted by way of example in Fig. 4 show that a very well-defined and at the same time relevant value of E (the lower curve in Fig. 4) is obtained for a broad range of working stresses when measurement is effected after the initial loading to the limit stress. The resulting relationship between σ _op and E represents a largely horizontal line, i.e. an E which is largely independent of σ _op from a relatively low σ _op to σ _op = σ _max .

Determining an elasticity modulus without a first load step to the limit stress (the upper curve in Fig. 4) results, even if three load steps are used, in an E which decreases sharply with increasing working stress, which makes this procedure disadvantageous, partly because of great sensitivity to changes in working stress as regards any particular E.

Elasticity modulus determination according to the invention thus arrives at a broadly applicable well-defined E without overestimation of E. The method is particularly applicable in cases where, for example, a component is subject in a use application to greater stress than that to which it is subsequently subject during actual use.

The invention is particularly applicable to grey cast iron, nodular iron and compact- graphite iron, where there are no metallic precipitations (carbon in the form of graphite) in a metallic matrix.

The invention is described above in relation to examples of embodiments. Further embodiments and minor modifications and additions are of course conceivable without thereby departing from the basic concept of the invention.

Thus embodiments are conceivable in which one, two, three or more loadings to the working stress are applied after the initial loading to the limit stress.

The invention is therefore not to be regarded as limited to the embodiments indicated above but may be varied within the scopes indicated by the attached claims.