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Advances in the measurement of hardness at high strain rates by nanoindentation

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Abstract

A new testing system and techniques for measuring the hardness of materials subjected to very high indentation strain rates up to 104 s−1 is presented. This was accomplished by modifying the components of a conventional nanoindentation system with a laser interferometer that records indenter displacements at 1.25 MHz. Using specially developed analysis techniques based on Newton's laws, these displacements can be converted to synchronous measurements of the indentation load, providing for the determination of indentation load–depth curves from which the hardness can be obtained. The testing system has been used to explore the behavior of two materials at opposite ends of the hardness spectrum—hard fused silica and soft single crystalline (111) aluminum. Results show that the hardness of fused silica is relatively insensitive to strain rate, whereas the hardness of aluminum at high strain rates (103–104 s−1) increases by 25% compared to quasistatic testing.

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Data availability

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank Wesley Higgins for his assistance in surface preparation of the aluminum sample.

Funding

This work was supported by the Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration under Award no. DE-NA0003857, and by the Indo-US Science and Technology Forum under Grant Number JC-045/2018.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Materials Science & Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    B. L. Hackett, C. C. Walker & G. M. Pharr

  2. International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy & New Materials (ARCI), Balapur P.O., Hyderabad, Telangana, 500005, India

    P. Sudharshan Phani

  3. KLA Corporation, 105 Meco Ln, Oak Ridge, TN, 37830, USA

    W. C. Oliver

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  1. B. L. Hackett
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  2. P. Sudharshan Phani
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  3. C. C. Walker
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  4. W. C. Oliver
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  5. G. M. Pharr
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Correspondence to G. M. Pharr.

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Hackett, B.L., Sudharshan Phani, P., Walker, C.C. et al. Advances in the measurement of hardness at high strain rates by nanoindentation. Journal of Materials Research 38, 1163–1177 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1557/s43578-023-00921-1

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