Insight into the Deformation Mechanisms under a Sharp Contact Loading in Glass by Atomic Force Microscopy

Abstract

AbstractThe response of a material to a sharp contact loading, as in the case of Vickers indentation for instance, provides a unique insight into the material constitutive law, including elastic and irreversible deformation parameters as well. However, under such peculiar thermodynamical and mechanical conditions (the mean contact pressure on the contact area reaches values typically higher than 1 GPa, corresponding to the hardness of the material) the deformation processes are complex and the matter located just beneath and around the contact area may experience some structural changes and behave in a way different to the expected - or known - macroscopic behaviour. It is showed in this study by means of detailed topological investigations of the residual indentations by Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) that the elastic recovery typically represents 50 to 70 % of the indentation volume at maximum load and that the densification contribution may reach 90 % of the residual deformation volume. Besides, most glasses exhibit indentation-creep phenomena, which become significant over time scale of few minutes because of a pronounced shear-thinning behavior..