Mechanical properties evaluation for engineering materials utilizing instrumented indentation: Finite element modelling approach

Instrumented indentation technique gives the possibility to determine the mechanical properties for small specimens and material in service. Several researchers have attempted to evaluate this approach experimentally and investigated the factors that affect it by using different indenter’s geometries for different engineering materials. In this work, the instrumented indentation technique was used to evaluate the mechanical properties experimentally and numerically using finite element simulation to understand the contact mechanics between the indenter surface and the substrate for two types of steel alloys namely ASTM516-G70 and AISI1010 steel. Two shapes of indenters, blunt (spherical) and sharp (Vickers) were used. The results were then compared with the experimental results extracted from the instrumented indentation test. The results have demonstrated a good agreement between the experimental and the finite element simulation results with error bound a ±5 % for young’s modulus and ±7.7 % for yield strength. Whereas excellent agreement is observed in the elastic region and the beginning of the plastic region for the true stress-strain curve. Finally, it is to be emphasized that the obtained results are more applicable for the tested materials and further research is recommended to accommodate other materials as well and to confirm the generality of this method.