In this paper, an iron-aluminide intermetallic compound with cerium addition was subjected to Vickers microhardness testing. A full range of Vickers microhardness loadings was applied: 10, 25, 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, and 1000 g. Tests were conducted in two areas: 0.5 mm under the surface of the rolled specimen and in the center. The aim was to find the optimal loading range that gives the true material microhardness, also deemed load-independent hardness, HLIH. The results suggest that in the surface area, the reverse indentation size effect (RISE) occurred, similar to ceramics and brittle materials, while in the center, indentation size effect (ISE) behavior was obtained, more similar to metals. This clearly indicated an optimal microhardness of over 500 g in the surface region and over 100 g in the central region of the specimen. Load dependencies were quantitatively described by Meyer's law, proportional specimen resistance (PSR), and the modified PSR model. The modified PSR model proved to be the most adequate.

Department of Material Science Faculty of Mechanical Engineering Technical University of Liberec Studentská 1402 2 461 17 Liberec Czech Republic

Department of Production Engineering Faculty of Technical Sciences University of Novi Sad Trg Dositeja Obradovica 6 21000 Novi Sad Serbia

See more in PubMed

Furukawa S., Komatsu T. Intermetallic Compounds: Promising Inorganic Materials for Well-Structured and Electronically Modified Reaction Environments for Efficient Catalysis. ACS Catal. 2017;7:735–765. doi: 10.1021/acscatal.6b02603. DOI

Askeland D.R., Fulay P.P., Wright W.J. The Science and Engineering of Materials. 6th ed. Cengage Learning; Stamford, CT, USA: 2010. pp. 414–416.

Yartys V., Lototskyy M. Laves type intermetallic compounds as hydrogen storage materials: A review. J. Alloys Compd. 2022;916:165219. doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2022.165219. DOI

Armbruster M. Intermetallic compounds in catalysis—A versatile class of materials meets interesting challenges. Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 2020;21:303–322. doi: 10.1080/14686996.2020.1758544. PubMed DOI PMC

Dasgupta A., Rioux R.M. Intermetallics in catalysis: An exciting subset of multimetallic catalysts. Catal. Today. 2019;330:2–15. doi: 10.1016/J.CATTOD.2018.05.048. DOI

Chiu W.-T., Fuchiwaki K., Umise A., Tahara M., Inamura T., Hosoda H. Investigations of Effects of Intermetallic Compound on the Mechanical Properties and Shape Memory Effect of Ti–Au–Ta Biomaterials. Materials. 2021;14:5810. doi: 10.3390/ma14195810. PubMed DOI PMC

Shimoga G., Kim T.H., Kim S.Y. An intermetallic NiTi-based shape memory coil spring for actuator technologies. Metals. 2021;11:1212. doi: 10.3390/met11081212. DOI

Reyes-Damián C., Morales F., Martínez-Piñeiro E., Escudero R. High-Pressure Effects on the Intermetallic Superconductor Ti0.85Pd0.15. J. Supercond. Nov. Magn. 2020;33:2601–2607. doi: 10.1007/s10948-020-05480-8. DOI

Liu S., Zhang J., Xia M., Xu C., Zhou W., Wu G., Xu X., Qian B., Shi Z. Electronic properties of PuNi3-type intermetallic superconductor LaRh3. Phys. C Supercond. Appl. 2020;572:1353619. doi: 10.1016/j.physc.2020.1353619. DOI

Avdeeva V., Bazhina A., Antipov M., Stolin A., Bazhin P. Relationship between Structure and Properties of Intermetallic Materials Based on γ-TiAl Hardened In Situ with Ti3Al. Metals. 2023;13:1002. doi: 10.3390/met13061002. DOI

Wang H., He Q.F., Yang Y. High-entropy intermetallics: From alloy design to structural and functional properties. Rare Met. 2022;41:1989–2001. doi: 10.1007/s12598-021-01926-7. DOI

Grilli M.L., Bellezze T., Gamsjäger E., Rinaldi A., Novak P., Balos S., Piticescu R., Letizia Ruello M. Solutions for Critical Raw Materials under Extreme Conditions: A Review. Materials. 2017;10:285. doi: 10.3390/MA10030285. PubMed DOI PMC

Kratochvíl P., Schindler I., Hanus P. Conditions for the hot rolling of Fe3Al-type iron aluminide. Kovove Mat. 2006;44:321–326.

Kant R., Prakash U., Agarwala V., Satya Prasad V.V. Wear behaviour of an FeAl intermetallic alloy containing carbon and titanium. Intermetallics. 2015;61:21–26. doi: 10.1016/j.intermet.2015.02.013. DOI

Nayak S.S., Wollgarten M., Banhart J., Pabi S.K., Murty B.S. Nanocomposites and an extremely hard nanocrystalline intermetallic of Al–Fe alloys prepared by mechanical alloying. Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 2010;527:2370–2378. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2009.12.044. DOI

Basariya M.R., Srivastava V.C., Mukhopadhyay N.K. Inverse Hall–Petch like behaviour in a mechanically milled nanocrystalline Al5Fe2 intermetallic phase. Philos. Mag. 2016;96:2445–2456. doi: 10.1080/14786435.2016.1204474. DOI

Basariya M.R., Roy R.K., Pramanick A.K., Srivastava V.C., Mukhopadhyay N.K. Structural transition and softening in Al-Fe intermetallic compounds induced by high energy ball milling. Mater. Sci. Eng. A. 2015;638:282–288. doi: 10.1016/j.msea.2015.04.076. DOI

Massalski T., Massalski T.B., Oram O.H. Binary Alloy Phase Diagrams. American Society for Metals; Metals Park, OH, USA: 1986. p. 628.

Dobránsky J., Baron P., Simkulet V., Kočiško M., Ružbarský J., Vojnová E. Examination of material manufactured by direct metal laser sintering (DMLS) Metalurgija. 2015;54:477–480.

Balos S., Sidjanin L., Pilic B. Indentation Size Effect in Autopolymerized and Microwave Post Treated Poly(methyl methacrylate) Denture Reline Resins. Acta Polytech. Hung. 2014;11:239–249. doi: 10.12700/aph.11.07.2014.07.15. DOI

Peng C., Zeng F. Modeling the indentation size effects of polymers, based on couple stress elasticity and shear transformation plasticity. Arch. Appl. Mech. 2022;92:3661–3681. doi: 10.1007/s00419-022-02255-6. DOI

Lin H., Jin T., Lv L., Ai Q. Indentation Size Effect in Pressure-Sensitive Polymer Based on A Criterion for Description of Yield Differential Effects and Shear Transformation-Mediated Plasticity. Polymers. 2019;11:412. doi: 10.3390/polym11030412. PubMed DOI PMC

Gong J., Li Y. Energy-balance analysis for the size effect in low-load hardness testing. J. Mater. Sci. 2000;35:209–213. doi: 10.1023/A:1004777607553. DOI

Marwaha R.K., Shah B.S. Microhardness studies on benzoic acid single crystals. Cryst. Res. Technol. 1988;23:K63–K65. doi: 10.1002/CRAT.2170230423. DOI

Balos S., Rajnovic D., Sidjanin L., Eric Cekic O., Moraca S., Trivkovic M., Dedic M. Vickers hardness indentation size effect in selective laser melted MS1 maraging steel. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. C. 2019;235:1724–1730. doi: 10.1177/0954406219892301. DOI

Balos S., Rajnovic D., Sidjanin L., Ciric Kostic S., Bogojevic N., Pecanac M., Pavlicevic J. Knoop hardness optimal loading in measuring microhardness of maraging steel obtained by selective laser melting. Proc. Inst. Mech. Eng. C. 2019;235:1872–1877. doi: 10.1177/0954406219841081. DOI

Şahin O., Uzun O., Kölemen U., Uçar N. Dynamic hardness and reduced modulus determination on the (001) face ofβ-Sn single crystals by a depth sensing indentation technique. J. Phys. Condens. Matter. 2007;19:306001. doi: 10.1088/0953-8984/19/30/306001. DOI

Ma Q., Clarke D.R. Size dependent hardness of silver single crystals. J. Mater. Res. 1995;10:853–863. doi: 10.1557/JMR.1995.0853. DOI

Nix W.D., Gao H., Nix W.D., Gao H. Indentation size effects in crystalline materials: A law for strain gradient plasticity. J. Mech. Phys. Solids. 1998;46:411–425. doi: 10.1016/S0022-5096(97)00086-0. DOI

Kratochvíl P., Pešička J., Hakl J., Vlasák T., Hanus P. Creep behaviour of intermetallic Fe–28Al–3Cr alloy with Ce addition. J. Alloys Compd. 2004;378:258–262. doi: 10.1016/j.jallcom.2003.11.163. DOI

Kratochvíl P., Málek P., Pešička J., Hakl J., Vlasák T., Hanus P. High-temperature deformation of Fe3 Al alloys with TiB2 or Ce additions. Kovove Mater. 2006;44:185–190.

Stoloff N.S., Liu C.T. Environmental embrittlement of iron aluminides. Intermetallics. 1996;2:75–87. doi: 10.1016/0966-9795(94)90001-9. DOI

Trzepiecinski T., Lemu H.G. A Three-Dimensional Elastic-Plastic Contact Analysis of Vickers Indenter on a Deep Drawing Quality Steel Sheet. Materials. 2019;12:2153. doi: 10.3390/ma12132153. PubMed DOI PMC

Weiler W. The Relationship between Vickers Hardness and Universal Hardness. Surf. Technol. 1992;79:53–55.

Muchtar A., Lim L.C., Lee K.H. Finite element analysis of vickers indentation cracking processes in brittle solids using elements exhibiting cohesive post-failure behaviour. J. Mater. Sci. 2003;38:235–243. doi: 10.1023/A:1021192911257. DOI