Abstract
The analysis of elastic and plastic models for the determination of impact resistance from impact data of a spherical indenter and an elastic-plastic material is presented. The establishment of fully elastic and plastic impact regimes for materials with different elastic moduli of elasticity, yield strengths and hardness are experimentally investigated. Yielding limit is defined in terms of the contact time to plastic deformation while the modulus of elasticity is given in terms of the contact time to elastic deformation and impact velocity. Experimental results show that an assessment of materials resistance to impact from the measured impact force-time signals is well correlated to the material hardness. The plastic impact wear depth for normal impact has been analytically and experimentally verified in terms of time to plastic deformation.