Title: An alternative method for continuous property measurement during depth-sensing indentation

Authors: Y.L. Chiu, G. Feng, B. Tang, A.H.W. Ngan

Addresses: Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland City, New Zealand. ' Engineering Division, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, PR China. ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, PR China

Abstract: Based on the Oliver-Pharr framework, an iteration scheme is proposed to continuously evaluate the hardness during monotonic loading in nanoindentation. The new method was applied to measure the hardness of various crystalline materials including Al, Cu, Ni3Al(Cr,B) and MgO, where an obvious Indentation Size Effect (ISE) was observed. In a-Se and PP, no ISE was observed when using exponential loading schemes at constant strain rates. The new method therefore produced the correct ISE behaviours in various materials under different loading situations.

Keywords: nanoindentation; hardness evaluation; indentation size effect; ISE; metals; polymers; continuous evaluation; crystalline materials; loading; measurement.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSURFSE.2007.013626

International Journal of Surface Science and Engineering, 2007 Vol.1 No.1, pp.144 - 154

Published online: 09 May 2007 *

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