Determination of Plastic Properties of Polycrystalline Metallic Materials by Nanoindentation – Experiments and Finite Element Simulations

ABSTRACTThe determination of plastic properties of metallic materials by nanoindentation requires the analysis of the indentation process and the evaluation methods. Particular effects on the nanoscale, like the indentation size effect or piling up of the material around the indentation, need to be considered. Nanoindentation experiments were performed on conventional grain sized (CG) as well as on ultrafine-grained (UFG) copper and brass. The indentation experiments were complemented with finite element simulations using the monotonic stress-strain curve as input data. All indentation tests were carried out using cube-corner and Berkovich geometry and thus different amount of plastic strain was applied to the material, according to Tabors theory. We find an excellent agreement between simulations and experiments for the UFG materials from which a representative strain of εB ≈ 0.1 and εcc ≈ 0.2 is determined. With these data, the slope of the stress-strain curve is predicted for all materials down to an indentation depth of 800 nm.