Influence of Microstructure on Impact Behaviour of Sintered Ferrous Materials

Abstract

In this paper results of a series of impact tests on ferrous sintered materials, characterised by a variety of microstructures obtained by alloying with different elements or varying the final heat treatment, are presented and discussed. Tests were conducted at room temperature, with an instrumented Charpy pendulum, which allows the possibility of measuring, during impact, the absorbed energy and the force applied on the specimen. Mechanical parameters obtained from load-deflection and energy-deflection curves were analysed and correlated with significant microstructural features and with fractographic information in order to describe the deformation and fracture of these materials under impact loading. In particular, the influence of the strong coupling between porosity and microstructural characteristics was analysed and discussed. PM/0665