Analysis of Nanoindentation Test Data

Abstract

As described in Chap. 2, estimations of both elastic modulus and hardness of the specimen material in a nanoindentation test are obtained from load versus penetration measurements. Rather than a direct measurement of the size of residual impressions, contact areas are instead calculated from depth measurements together with a knowledge of the actual shape of the indenter. For this reason, nanoindentation testing is sometimes referred to as depth-sensing indentation testing. In this chapter, methods of the analysis of load-displacement data that are used to compute hardness and modulus of test specimens are presented in detail. It is an appropriate introduction to first consider the case of a cylindrical punch indentercylindrical punch indenter—even though this type of indenter is rarely used for this type of testing, its response illustrates and introduces the theory for the more complicated cases of spherical and pyramidal indenters.