Procedure and Instruments for the Material Damage Assessment by the LM-Hardness Method on the In-Service Scratching of Structure Element Surfaces

Abstract

The procedure for the material damage assessment by the LM-hardness method, consisting of the in-service scratching of structure element surfaces and employing portable instruments for its implementation, is described. These instruments can provide the rapid analysis of damage of a structural element to be diagnosed, continuous measurement of axial displacements of the embedded scratching tip, moving over the surface of this element, systematization, and statistical processing of experimental data for Weibull homogeneity coefficient computations. The latter results derived via the LM-hardness method are used to assess the damage rate of the material. The advantage of these instruments is their high accuracy and performance in measuring a large number of axial displacements of the tip necessary for statistical processing as well as actual testing on vertical, ceiling, and inclined surfaces of structural elements.