Three-dimensional numerical simulation of Vickers indentation tests

The development of depth sensing indentation equipment has allowed easy and reliable determination of two of the most popular measured mechanical properties of materials: the hardness and the Young’s modulus. However, some difficulties emerge in the experimental procedure to calculate accurate values of these properties. This is related to, for example, the tip geometrical imperfections of the diamond pyramidal indenter and the definition of the contact area at the maximum load. Being so, numerical simulation of ultramicrohardness tests can be a helpful tool for better understanding of the influence of these parameters on procedures for determining the hardness and the Young’s modulus. For this purpose, specific finite element simulation software, HAFILM, was developed to simulate the ultramicrohardness tests. Different mesh refinements were tested because of the dependence between the values of the mechanical properties and the size of the finite element mesh. Another parameter studied in this work is the value of the friction coefficient between the indenter and the sample in the numerical simulation. In order to obtain numerical results close to reality, a common geometry and size of the imperfection of the tip of Vickers indenter was taken into account for the numerical description of the indenter.