Reverse analysis in depth-sensing indentation for thin films Young's modulus evaluation

Jorge Manuel Antunes (1) , José Valdemar Fernandes (2) , Nataliya Sakharova (2) , Luís Menezes (2)

1 Instituto Politécnico de Tomar
2 Universidade de Coimbra

This paper seeks to present an approach to reverse analysis in depth-sensing indentation of composite film/substrate materials, which makes use of numerical simulation. This methodology allows the results of experimental hardness tests, acquired with pyramidal indenter geometry, to be used to determine the Young's modulus of thin film materials. Forward and reverse analyses were performing making use of three-dimensional numerical simulations of pyramidal and flat punch indentation tests in order to determine the Young's modulus of the thin films. The pyramidal indenter used in the numerical simulations takes into account the presence of the most common imperfection of the tip, so-called offset. The contact friction between the Vickers indenter and the deformable body is also considered. The forward analysis uses fictitious composite materials with different relationships between the values of the Young's modulus of the film and substrate. The proposed reverse analysis procedure provides a unique value for the film's Young's modulus. Depending on the material properties, the value of the Young's modulus of the film can be more or less sensitive to the scatter of the experimental results, obtained using the depth-sensing equipment. The validity of the proposed reverse analysis method is checked using four real cases of composite materials.

Mots clés: Physical Sciences

Jorge Manuel Antunes, José Valdemar Fernandes, Nataliya Sakharova, Luís Menezes. Reverse analysis in depth-sensing indentation for thin films Young's modulus evaluation. Philosophical Magazine, 2008, 88 (03), pp.313-325. ⟨10.1080/14786430701832404⟩. ⟨hal-00513852⟩