Some interesting properties can be found by DMA analysis. However, since temperature is involved, it is not recommended to use again the analyzed sample/piece.

Hi. you can use analysis test for this material and then use ASME Standard for this material and checked it.

If you have a hardness tester that collects load versus depth data throughout the test. you can estimate Young's modulus, yield strength, tensile strength. Alternatively, you can run several hardness tests with different scales and use those data to estimate those properties.

Hello! You can use ultrasonic or photoacoustic technique!

you can use RFDA (Resonance frequency Damping Analyser)

You are proposing quite a challenge! Following Dr. Tiyakioglu proposal, you could perform nanoindentation tests. This kind of equipment can be usually found in tribology, thin films or coating technology laboratories. However, the geometry of the knuckle could be problematic...

Good luck!

Ideally if you want to do nanoindentation measurements, you need to have quite flat specimen which can't be easy due to the geometry of a steering knuckle...

Can't your supplier/customer give you a piece where machining went wrong or something like this, then you can prepare some samples...

actually non of the non-destructive tests will give you the accurate data because most of them need especial sample preparation which is not the case you are dealing with.

if you mean the data which can be count on for numerical results, you need to have samples. but if you need approximate data, then ultrasonic or hardness test or ... can be used.

Ultrasonic methods are a good bet

You should get some samples of the part/material to perform a series of micro- and nanoindentation tests. Otherwise, ultrasonic method could be used in the case of knucle...

Ultrasonic could give you young modulus and poisson coefficient if using longitudinal and tranversal sensors...

See Correlation between ultrasonic shear wave velocity and Poisson’s ratio for isotropic porous materials from K. K. Phani for equations.

İ think the problem is that he longitudinal and transverse directions are not identical for this specimen and then the sensors can not give the correct data

non-destructive techniques of ultrasonic and electromagnetic(Barkhausen noise, eddy current etc.) are applicable for your purpose, if the mentioned NDE methods have been calibrated for your type of material, and your sample properties have been included in their database. since it is rare to find a NDE device with such a database i recommend ignoring them for this purpose. these methods are usually employed in production lines where the probable deviation from given properties can be controlled by them. regards,

You could do an instrumented hardness indentation test, if the indentation mark is ok for you. Details you can find in EN ISO 14577-1:2012-03.

Then you can look at correlations published, between the data of the instrumented hardness indentation test and the data you are looking for. Ask me, if you are interested in these.

In practice there are two main approaches to the problem.  A) Mechanical Testing: Tensile and fracture properties of  ASTM steels  have been studied using nondestructive Stress–Strain Microprobe™ system (SSM), which is developed on the basis of automated ball indentation (ABI) technique. Tests have been carried out on as-received, and cold worked (4, 8 and 12%) materials at several temperatures in the range −150°C–+200°C at a constant strain rate. Tensile properties determined from ABI tests agreed well with the results from conventional tensile tests. The elastic–plastic fracture toughness parameter KJC was estimated from the ABI data. As expected, cold working resulted in increase in strength, decrease in fracture toughness and increase in ductile to brittle transition temperature. ABI is a reliable nondestructive technique for determining tensile and fracture properties of materials and has potential applications in the nuclear industry particularly to determine toughness degradation due to aging in service.

B) Ultrasonic Testing: An ultrasonic pulse transit-time method was used to determine the Young's modulus, shear modulus, and Poisson's ratio of several  restorative materials. Two types of ultrasonic wave could be generated inside the specimen by altering the angle of incidence. Measurement of the pulse transit-time for these two waves enabled their velocities and, hence, the material's elastic constants to be calculated. 

Dear Dr. Naidu, the  first of all you have to know what type of material is used for your steering knuckle, etc. Now days  automobile industry has put effort to use aluminium alloy as an alternative. Due to low weight of this material, it can reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emission.  So as per survey best suited material was aluminium alloy. It has low density and compatible high yield strength. This material was chosen for designing knuckle by comparing its result with other material. Chemical properties of aluminium 2011 T3 alloy  is well known, and similarly the intrinsic elastic properties. In old times they were using white cast  or  gray cast iron. Of course, forged steel  is  most demanding material for this application, but weight is the main concern.  What is important here, the bulk and surface micro defects (cracks, notches and surface flaws) formed  during manufacturing an/or during the operation period. These defects are responsible for the material break down during the static and dynamics loading,  and aging. These defects can be detected by ultrasonic and x-ray radio graphic methods. In certain case  gamma ray radiography might be helpful for the deep lying bulk flaws detection. Best Regards

Note:  Total work for fracture Gc is about  100 lb/in. for high-strength aluminium alloys, which is about  2.5x 10**3  times larger then the theoretical value. All one has to  know is the maximum flaw size aC  for a given maximum operational load acting on the steering knuckle, which reads:  

aC EQL [ E Gc /(Pi x Sigma2 ) ] where E  Young Modulus,  Sigma is the  maximum applied stress or dynamical loading., and  aC is the critical flaw size above which the local fracture starts and propagates.

Ultra sonic methods are the best, You may try Nano indentation method to get Modulus and tensile strength but it will leaves indentation marks on your sample. Anyhow indentation marks are of few microns in size only, so nothing to worry much it can be tried.

Ultrasonic method is probably the only "totally" non-destructive method you can apply. However, you need a constant thickness along the path of the ultrasonic waves and you should know quite accurately this thickness as the uncertainity in thickness may lead to very large errors in thin sections. So, you have several geometrical limitations.

As mentioned earlier, instrumented indentation testing (IIT) can also be used if a small indentation is tolerable in the part. However, geometry and size may again limit the application of the method.

Finally, a destructive method (which can performed with smaller specimens than tensile testing) is the Resonance Frequency and Damping Analysis (RFDA). This is destructive but depending on the thickness it can be performed on a considerable smaller specimen than tensile specimen.