Investigation of case hardened steel subjected to torsion: An experimental and numerical elastic-plastic material study

Abstract: There is currently a knowledge gap regarding the plastic material properties of many steel types that Atlas Copco use in their high torque power tools. This makes it difficult to fully utilise the capabilities of the Finite Element Method (FEM) to aid the developmental process. Case hardened steel is of special interest as there is not any established method on how to model it numerically.Test specimens of steel type 9195 and 2541 has been developed with two different geometries; hollow and solid. Specimen were heat treated to create case hardened specimens with different Case Depths (CD) as well as specimens made to mimic the material behaviour of the case and core of case hardened steel.Monotone torsion tests were conducted to generate stress-strain data for material models. Hardness tests of case hardened steel were made to determine hardness profiles. By combining these results, a spatially dependent case hardened steel material in an FE-model was created.Test results of the homogeneous specimen tests were successfully modelled using FEA. The case hardened steel could also be modelled, but with a discrepancy against the test results as the model core material were not representative actual core. However, the spatially dependent material model has high potential for simulating the case hardened steel, given the correct inputs.