Strain and Stress Distribution in Vickers Indentation of Coated Materials

Depth sensing indentation equipment allows the mechanical properties of thin films to be easily determined, particularly the hardness and Young’s modulus. In order to minimize the influence of the substrate on the measured properties, the indentation depth must be limited to a small fraction of the film’s thickness. However, for very thin films, the determination of the contribution of the substrate and the film to the measured mechanical properties becomes a hard task, because both deform plastically. The numerical simulation of ultramicrohardness tests can be a helpful tool towards better understanding of the influence of the parameters involved in the mechanical characterization of thin films. For this purpose, a three-dimensional numerical simulation home code, HAFILM, was used to simulate ultramicrohardness tests on coated substrates. Materials with different Young’s modulus film/substrate ratios were tested. Analyses of strain and stress distributions for several indentation depth values were performed, in order to clarify the composite behaviour.