A new consideration on spherical depth sensing indentation

This work evaluates the influence of the pile up or sink in phenomena onto the values of elastic modulus determined by instrumented indentation tests with spherical tips on different metallic materials. A new procedure for the determination of this property is proposed, based on the hypothesis of contact radius constancy during the unloading process. The values of the elastic modulus obtained are in good agreement with those provided by tensile tests, independently of the pile up or sink in developed.