Indentation and scratch testing – experiment and simulation

Abstract

Most modern wear resistant materials feature a multiphase microstructure and the macroscopic wear behavior is controlled by the local mechanical properties of the single phases. Indentation testing and in particular nanoindentation allows for the local mechanical characterization of materials and their phases. This paper addresses the determination of important mechanical parameters such as hardness, Young’s modulus and indentation energy parameters of single phases in multiphase wear resistant materials. Important influencing factors such as matrix influence on the indentation results of an embedded hard phase, the indentation-size-effect (ISE), the effect of crystallographic orientation, and the fracturing behavior of hard phases are addressed. In addition, the results of scratch tests on the cold work tool steel X210Cr12 and a WC-Co hard metal are presented in order to investigate aspects of the mechanical behavior under abrasion. The deformation behavior under indentation and scratch loading was analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Besides the experiments supplementary numerical simulations of indentation and scratching testing with the use of the Finite-Element-Method (FEM) are presented.