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Defence Technology 11 (2015) 255e261
www.elsevier.com/locate/dt

Application of ultrasonic waves in measurement of hardness of welded

carbon steels
Fatih UZUN a,*, Ali Nezihi BILGE b
a

Department of Chemical Engineering, Yeditepe University, 26 Agustos Yerleskesi, 34520 Istanbul, Turkey
b
Department of Energy Systems Engineering, Bilgi University, Turkey
Received 7 January 2015; revised 30 April 2015; accepted 4 May 2015
Available online 30 May 2015

Abstract
The ultrasonic contact impedance technique and ultrasonic wave velocities have been widely used for non-destructive hardness measurement.
Ultrasonic wave velocity shift provides through the thickness average hardness, however, the correlations are performed according to surface
hardness. In order to accept this technique as a particular non-destructive method for determination of hardness, it is necessary to test it with
industrial applications. A widely used joining (welding) technique is selected for this purpose. Samples of carbon steels with three different
carbon contents, but similar composition, are annealed in order to obtain the softened samples with different hardness values. Rockwell B scale
hardness of heat treated samples, which are assumed to be isotropic, are determined and correlated with ultrasonic wave velocity shifts. Effect of
welding process on hardness is investigated using ultrasonic wave velocity shifts, and the results are verified with destructive hardness measurements.
Copyright 2015, China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Ultrasonic wave velocity; Average bulk hardness; Welding; Steel carbon content

1. Introduction
Hardness is a measure of the resistance of materials against
the changing effects of external shape. The magnitude of this
property is related to yield strength, tensile strength and
modulus of elasticity of materials. Accordingly, the investigation and measurement of hardness have vital importance.
During the decades, various destructive and non-destructive
hardness test methods have been developed. The nondestructive methods are portable and can be used on materials at the service, but a widely accepted non-destructive
hardness test method, the ultrasonic contact impedance technique, is limited to measure the surface hardness. The pulse
echo ultrasonic waves can be used to investigate the internal

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 90 5354569882.

E-mail address: fatihuzun@me.com (F. UZUN).
Peer review under responsibility of China Ordnance Society.

hardness variations. These waves travel through the thickness

of material and give the average magnitude of hardness within
the bulk volume. However, some production methods, such as
welding process, cause the irregular deformations of the
interior crystal structure of materials. Different sections of
materials can have different hardness, and so the reliability of
this technique for the welded structures should be investigated.
Ultrasonic wave velocity can be correlated with the measurements of an accepted hardness test technique for the materials with different hardness values. For this purpose, heat
treatment techniques, such as annealing, should be used to
obtain the samples of a material. Time and temperature are the
main variables of annealing process, which should be determined carefully in order to obtain the materials with desired
hardness. Some studies have been conducted to investigate the
behaviors of materials under different annealing conditions.
During these studies, the annealing treatments were performed
with different parameters to investigate their effect on hardness. Li et al. [1] investigated the annealing softening behavior

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.dt.2015.05.002
2214-9147/Copyright 2015, China Ordnance Society. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

256

F. UZUN, A.N. BILGE / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 255e261

of cold-rolled low-carbon steel. The annealing behavior and

mechanical properties of severely deformed interstitial-free
steel were studied by Gazder et al. [2]. The annealing
behavior of martensitic steel was investigated by Kimura et al.
[3]. Fargas et al. [4] investigated the effect of annealing
temperature on the mechanical properties of hot-rolled duplex
stainless steel. Euh et al. [5] studied the effect of temperature
on hardness improvement in vanadium carbide coated steels.
Irani et al. [6] studied the effect of forging temperature on the
hardness of low carbon steel gears. The effect of annealing
temperature on properties of stainless steels was investigated
by Negm [7]. Kang et al. [8] investigated the effects of
recrystallization annealing temperature on the mechanical
properties of twinning induced plasticity steels. The effect of
annealing temperature on microstructure, phase composition
and mechanical properties of thixo-cast 100Cr6 steel was
studied by Rogal et al. [9]. Liu et al. [10] investigated the
decrease in hardness during the isothermal process at 700  C
for Fee24Mn-0.7Si-1.0Al TWIP steel.
Various correlations between ultrasonic parameters and
material properties have been proposed. Bibliographies and
detailed explanations of previous studies were discussed in the
handbook of the American Society of Nondestructive Testing
[11]. Effect of hardness on ultrasonic waves was investigated
by various authors. Kleesattel et al. [12] developed a correlation for measurement of surface hardness and proposed the
ultrasonic contact impedance hardness test method in 1961.
Rosen et al. [13] presented a relation between ultrasonic
attenuation and hardness of aluminumecopper alloys by
varying the age hardening processes. Another correlation between ultrasonic wave velocity and hardness was developed by
Rosen et al. [14], for hardness prediction of aged aluminum
alloy 2024.
Ultrasonic waves propagate in materials at a constant velocity. This behavior allows them to be used for nondestructive investigation purposes. Different studies were
conducted to determine the hardness of various materials using
the velocity variations of ultrasonic wave. Tariq et al. [15]
correlated the material properties, including hardness, of
selected aluminum alloys with ultrasonic wave velocity variations. Bouda et al. [16], Lukomski, et al. [17], Chou et al.
[18] and Rayes et al. [19] developed the correlations between
ultrasonic wave velocity and steel hardness to determine the
thickness average hardness. These studies showed that the
velocity measurements of pulse-echo ultrasonic wave provide
average hardness through the thickness of materials, but the
correlations were performed using surface hardness. Isotropic
materials were used in these studies, and it was assumed that
the inner hardness of samples was consistent with surface
hardness. However, these correlations were not tested in industrial applications. This study aims to investigate the
feasibility of through-thickness average hardness investigation
method using a widely used industrial method. For this purpose, welding process, which causes the formation of irregularities in the material, is selected, and the hardness variations
after welding of three different types of materials are investigated. Results of the ultrasonic method are verified by the

widely used destructive surface hardness measurement

method.
2. Methodology
Ultrasonic technique for investigation of average hardness
through the thickness has some restrictions. Correlations can
only be performed using destructive surface hardness measurement methods which cause suspicion on the accuracy of
the results. Accordingly, the ultrasonic waves for average
hardness measurement have not been widely used for industrial purposes. This study aims to propose the reliability of
ultrasonic waves for average hardness investigation using a
real industrial application on three different types of steels.
Welding is a complicated process that causes the irregular
changes in the grain structure of materials. Rapid heating and
cooling cycles of the welding process cause the formation of
hardened zones around the weld beam. Variation of hardness
during this process differs at different sections of a material
related to distance from those at weld center and heat input.
For this purpose, the welding process is selected as an industrial application for investigation of the reliability of ultrasonic bulk hardness measurement method in the conditions
of non-homogeneous hardness. In addition, the most common
variable in the composition of steels is carbon content so that
the carbon steels with different carbon contents are used in
order to observe the success of this method for different
materials.
In order to investigate the feasibility of ultrasonic waves for
hardness measurement, the low alloy steels with similar
composition but different carbon contents are used. Ultra lowcarbon interstitial free steel (IF steel) is used as a carbon free
steel sample. Low carbon and medium carbon steels with
0.092 weight % and 0.478 weight % carbon contents are other
steel types with higher carbon content. Samples of each steel
type
are
prepared
with
dimensions
of
20 mm  20 mm  10 mm. Each sample is annealed at
varying temperatures from 100  C to 1150 C. The samples
are heated to the annealing temperature, kept at this temperature for 2 h and then cooled down to room temperature in the
oven.
The Rockwell hardness test is a simple hardness measurement technique which can be applied to a wide variety of
materials [20]. The depth of a prescribed load is determined,
and converted to a hardness value [21] in this technique. Eq.
(1) [22] is used to calculate Rockwell hardness,
HR N 

h
S

where HR is Rockwell hardness; N is numerical constant; h is

remaining depth of penetration; and S is scale division. There
are various Rockwell scales that are marked by additional
capital letter to HR. HRB scale is used for soft and middle
hardness steel, aluminum, and brass. Carbon steels with carbon content lower than 0.5 weight % are classified as soft and
middle hardness steels, and consequently, HRB scale is used

F. UZUN, A.N. BILGE / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 255e261

in this study. The hardness measurements are performed

before and after the annealing treatments and repeated 10
times.
In this study, it is aimed to determine the hardness of materials non-destructively. It is required to obtain full penetration into the material through the thickness for measurement
of average hardness. For this purpose, there are various nondestructive testing methods which are widely used for detection of discontinuities in materials. Among these methods, the
radiography can only provide visual images, the diffraction
methods require expensive and importable equipment, and the
eddy current and magnetic particle methods visualize the defects, but they are not able to provide the results about grain
structure of materials. Sound waves are also used for nondestructive evaluation of materials for industrial and scientific purposes. Effects of material properties and grain structure
are also a known fact. Accordingly, it is decided to use the
ultrasonic sound waves for determination of bulk hardness
through the thickness of materials.
Longitudinal ultrasonic waves propagate and vibrate in the
same direction and travel through a medium at constant velocity. Pulse echo technique, in which waves are transmitted
and received by the same transducer, is used with this type of
waves. Immersion ultrasonic systems transmit the longitudinal
waves in water, as shown in Fig. 1. Echoes reflect back from
the surface and back wall of a material. Computer integrated
system measures the time difference between two echoes and
calculates wave velocity using Eq. (2)
V d=t

where V is wave velocity; d is thickness; and t is time.

Three sample plates of each steel type and their weld
grooves are prepared according to the geometric properties
given in Fig. 2. The depth of the weld groove is 3 mm with a
side angle of 60 , and the width of its bottom part is 2 mm.
The weld groove with a length of 93.3 mm is located in the
center. Length of the weld grove is determined as one-third of
length of base plate.
The welding process is required to be performed using a
fully automated system with common parameters for each
type of steel. Submerged arc welding technique is a proper
method to this end, which minimizes the possible operator
errors. Dupont et al. [23] evaluated the effects of welding
parameters on the arc and melting efficiency, compared
various arc welding processes and determined the efficiencies
of those processes, including submerged arc welding. That
efficiency parameter is preferred to be used during the welding

257

Fig. 2. Illustration of sample geometry and hardness measurement section.

of samples. The parameters of the submerged arc welding

process are given in Table 1. Other parameters are not selected
according to technical investigation. They are determined according to the requirements of the operator in order to perform
a real industrial application of welding process.
In this study, the welding process is performed at TEKFEN
Manufacturing and Engineering Co. lnc. Facility. AWS
EM12K submerged arc wire is selected as filler material.
Single pass weld is performed to fill each weld groove and
then the samples are left to cool in stagnant air. Rockwell and
ultrasonic hardness measurements of welded samples are
repeated after 24 h following the welding process.
3. Correlation
Hardness and ultrasonic wave velocity measurements are
performed before and after each annealing stage. Their variation
in initial condition are investigated in terms of annealing temperature, and then the variations of hardness and ultrasonic wave
velocity are correlated for each steel type. The initial hardnesses
of steel samples are given in Table 2. The second-order polynomial function of these correlations are given in Eq. (3)
Dhv a1 v  v0 a2 v  v0 a3

Table 1
Parameters for submerged arc welding process.

Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the immersion ultrasonic system.

Electric potential
energy/V

Electric
current/A

Efficiency/%

Torch travel
length/mm

Time/s

30

500

84

90

6.75

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F. UZUN, A.N. BILGE / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 255e261

Table 2
Initial hardnesses of steel samples.
Carbon content (wt. %)

Initial hardness (HRB)

0
0.092
0.478

66
74.5
91

where Dh is variation of hardness; v0 is initial ultrasonic wave

velocity; v is measured ultrasonic wave velocity; and a1, a2
and a3 are constants.
The left column in Fig. 3 illustrates the variations of
hardness and ultrasonic wave velocity related to annealing
temperature. Results show that there is an inverse relation
between the two data. The relation between hardness and ultrasonic wave velocity variation for each sample are proposed
in the right column in Fig. 3. Careful observations showed that
the relation of hardness and ultrasonic wave velocity has a
regular order for each carbon content, but these orders do not
fit the exponential, logarithmic or linear trends. On the other

hand, the high order polynomial trends provide good regression analysis results, but provides unrealistic fluctuation. Investigations showed that the best fitting to hardness and
ultrasonic wave velocity relation data is obtained with the
second-order trends, and accordingly the trend of each data is
determined in terms of the second-order polynomial function.
Without heat treatment, no change occurs in the hardness of
the material. At that point the variations of ultrasonic wave
velocity and hardness are zero so that the upper and lower
values of the third coefficient (a3) of the second-order polynomial are limited to zero.
The initial hardness of steel is related to its carbon content,
and its hardness increases with the increase in carbon content.
On the other hand, the magnitude of hardness variation,
related to annealing process, decreases with the increase in
carbon content. There is also a relation between ultrasonic
wave velocity and carbon content of sample. The magnitude
of increase of ultrasonic wave velocity decreases with the
increase in carbon content. Results also show that there is a
relation between ultrasonic wave velocity and hardness.

Fig. 3. The variations of hardness and ultrasonic wave velocity and the correlations between them in steels with 0, 0.092 and 0.478 weight % of carbon contents.

F. UZUN, A.N. BILGE / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 255e261

259

It can be stated that the correlations developed based on ultrasonic wave velocity variations have success on the determination of average hardness.
4. Hardness of welded steel

Fig. 4. Comparison of measured and predicted hardness values of isotropic test

samples.

Ultrasonic wave velocity increases with the decrease in

hardness. At some annealing stages, the hardness increases,
and the ultrasonic wave velocity decreases with the increase in
hardness.
Investigations on the relation between ultrasonic wave
velocity and hardness show that a convex function is obtained
when the carbon content is zero. Increasing the carbon content
replaces the function from convex to concave, because the
ultrasonic wave velocity varies with a lower rate after the
increase in carbon content. The hardness decreases with the
increase in ultrasonic wave velocity in all cases. The secondorder polynomial functions are given in Eqs. (4)e(6):
Dhv 0:0018v  v0  0:3867v  v0

Dhv 0:00107v  v0  0:41v  v0

Dhv 0:00556v  v0  0:0776v  v0

Eq. (4) is used for carbon-free IF steel. Correlations for

steels with 0.092 and 0.478 weight % of carbon contents are
defined using Eqs. (5) and (6), respectively.
Rockwell hardness measurements are compared with predictions of the correlations. The investigations are performed
using the isotropic samples. It is accepted that the hardness
within these samples is homogeneous. Accordingly, the results
are plotted with a first-order trend line, as shown in Fig. 4.
Trend line perfectly fits the data points with R2 value of 0.925.

Ultrasonic wave velocity measurements cannot be performed on weld beam because of the rough surface so that the
ultrasonic and Rockwell hardness measurements are accomplished as close as possible to weld beam, which is at 10 mm
away from weld center, as illustrated in Fig. 2. The measured
results of all three samples are merged and analyzed in a single
distribution.
Similar to hardening process, the temperature of weld zone
increases up to melting point temperature during welding then
decreases rapidly after the removal of heat source. Phase
transformations and rapid heating and cooling cycles cause the
formation of compression and tension zones in different sections of materials. Consequently, the isotropic structures of
materials cannot be sustained during the welding process.
The welding process causes the formation of residual
stresses within and around the weld beam. The relation between hardness and residual stress was investigated [24,25].
These studies showed that hardness is affected by residual
stress in materials. The ultrasonic waves are also used to
observe the bulk residual stresses in welded steel [26,27].
Similarly, the thickness average hardness is expected to be
investigated for welded materials. Results show that the
hardness of IF steel increases as a result of the welding process
around weld beam, as illustrated in Fig. 5. Hardness increases
around the weld beam. The increase in surface hardness starts
in the measurement points at 40 mm away from the weld
center, but this distance is around 20 mm for the thickness
average hardness.
Low carbon steel has a different hardness distribution
compared to IF steel, as illustrated in Fig. 6. A sharp increase
in hardness around the weld beam is observed. It is a fact that
the carbon element increases the hardnesses of steels. Similar
to hardening process, rapid heating and cooling around weld
beam arise with an increase in hardness. In addition to the rate
of hardening, the rapid heating and cooling cycles during the
welding process result in gathering the carbon atoms around
the heated zone and the hardness increase in that zone.

Fig. 5. Hardness distribution in IF steel after welding.

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F. UZUN, A.N. BILGE / Defence Technology 11 (2015) 255e261

Fig. 6. Hardness distribution in low carbon steel after welding.

Fig. 7. Hardness distribution in medium carbon steel after welding.

Ultrasonic and Rockwell hardness distributions in low

carbon steel are illustrated in Fig. 7.
Two methods show similar distributions, but the hardness
increases around the weld beam, observed with ultrasonic
technique, is lower than Rockwell technique. It can be stated
that the small variations in average thickness through the
thickness can be observed using this non-destructive
technique.
Similar hardness distributions are observed with ultrasonic
and Rockwell hardness measurements of all three steel types,
but ultrasonic hardness measurement brought a narrower gap
between highest and lowest values. The results show that the
maximum Rockwell hardness value reached around the weld
beam is higher than the average ultrasonic hardness value, and
their magnitudes increase with the increase in carbon content.
5. Conclusion
Pulse-echo through the thickness ultrasonic waves were
accepted to be used as an alternative hardness measurement
method, however, this non-destructive technique does not have
enough industrial applications because the reliability of this
method has never been investigated. In spite of bulk hardness
within a volume, the surface hardness tests are being performed for industrial purposes. This study showed that the
ultrasonic waves are capable of effectively determining the
hardness variations in a material in an industrial application.
Through the thickness, the ultrasonic wave velocities are
correlated with surface hardnesses of isotropic materials to
measure average hardness within the bulk volume, but the

materials cannot sustain their isotropic structures during

manufacturing processes. The welding process of steels is an
example of industrial operation that the grain structure of
materials changes around the weld zone. In this study, the
ability of this technique, to measure the hardnesses of anisotropic materials, is investigated. The results show that this
technique can be accepted as a viable method for bulk hardness investigation. Destructive surface method and nondestructive bulk method provide similar hardness distributions, but the magnitudes of average and surface hardness
values are different. These methods should not be accepted as
alternatives to each other.
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