Atomic force microscopy (AFM) can determine mechanical properties, associated with surface topography and structure, of a material at the nanoscale. Force–indentation curves that depict the deformation of a target specimen as a function of an applied force are widely used to determine the elastic modulus of a material based on a contact model. However, a hysteresis may arise due to friction between the AFM tip and a specimen. Consequently, the normal force detected using a photodetector during extension and retraction could be underestimated and overestimated, respectively, and the extension/retraction data could result in a significant difference in the elastic modulus measurement result. In this study, elastic modulus and friction coefficient values were determined based on an in situ theoretical model that compensated for the effect of friction on force–indentation data. It validated the proposed model using three different polymer specimens and colloidal-tipped probes for the force–indentation curve and friction loop measurements. This research could contribute to the accurate measurement of mechanical properties using AFM by enhancing the interpretation of force–indentation curves with friction-induced hysteresis. Furthermore, the proposed approach may be useful for analyzing in situ relationships between mechanical and frictional properties from a fundamental tribological perspective.

The basis of the virtual machine concept, which is commonly used in coordinate measuring machines, was implemented to determine more realistic uncertainties on the estimation of the elastic modulus obtained from nanoindentation tests. The methodology is based on a mathematical model applied to simulate the testing process and to evaluate the uncertainties through Monte Carlo simulations whose application depends on the studied system (instrument, material, scale, etc.). The methodology was applied to the study of fused silica (FQ) and steel samples tested in a nanoindentation system. The results revealed that the most relevant sources of uncertainty are related to the calibration procedure, particularly to the elastic modulus of the calibration material, and to the contact depth estimation; however, the relevance of the uncertainties is system dependent. This work represents a first insight for a deeper consideration of the uncertainties in instrumented indentation testing.

Cell morphology and relative density (ρrel) are two crucial intrinsic parameters controlling the mechanical properties of metal foams (MFs) and directly depend on their structure (closed/open-cell) and composition (affecting processing parameters). Here, we report on compressive studies of MFs of aluminum (Al) and 7075-T6 alloy processed via a customized route at strain rate, έ = 0.002 and 2.0 s−1. In both sets of MFs, the strength and apparent elastic modulus (E) monotonically increased with ρrel at both έ. At έ = 2.0 s−1, an increase in cell size (Cs) enhanced the strength of both sets of MFs, while at έ = 0.002 s−1, only the alloy foams showed strength increment. The densification strain (εd) of Al foams at έ = 0.002 s−1 monotonically decreased with increasing ρrel, whereas the alloy foams collapsed before the onset of densification. None of the MFs showed any particular trend of εd at έ = 2.0 s−1. The studies conclude that the mechanical properties of MFs with similar morphology, foam parameters, and processing route depend on έ and Cs. Absorption energy (W) and absorption efficiency (Im) of the two sets of MFs were also compared.

Raw clay materials manufactured for stoneware use are typically compounds of kaolins, silicas and feldspars. Two stoneware clay materials examined here were chosen because each is representative of the range of manufactured clay bodies. Samples were fired in an oxidizing atmosphere to a range of temperatures between ∼1000 and 1300°C. Sample dimensions, density, porosity and mechanical properties under compression were measured as a function of firing temperature. Thin sections, showing particles and their relationship to pore/void structures, were prepared, recorded under scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and analysed. The observed changes in microstructure can be related to previously described metamorphic and micro-eutectic reactions and a gradual sintering process. Indications of changes to apparent porosity are further amplified by measured changes of mechanical properties. The modulus of elasticity increases with reduction in porosity to a point at which porosity ceases to be the principal determining factor. The critical Griffith's crack length, calculated from fracture-strength measurement, exhibits a similar trend. The onset of these changes coincides with a significant increase in sealed porosity and with the microstructural metamorphosis as revealed by SEM.

In this paper, the effective properties of particle-reinforced composites with a weakened interphase are investigated. The particle and interphase are regarded as an equivalent-inclusion, and the interphase zone around the particle is modeled as a linear elastic spring layer. A modified micro-mechanics model is proposed to obtain the effective elastic modulus. Moreover, a statistical debonding criterion is proposed to characterize the varying probability of the evolution of interphase debonding. Numerical examples are considered to illustrate the effect of imperfect interphases on the effective properties of particle-reinforced composites. It is found that the effective elastic properties obtained in the present work are in a good agreement with the existing data from the literatures.

In this work, nano, micro, and macro-indentation tests under standard or multicycle loading conditions were performed for studying the mechanical behavior of a crown borosilicate glass sample with the objective to study the scale effect in indentation and the influence of cracks formation on the assessment of mechanical properties. When no cracks were initiated during the indenter penetration, especially for low indentation loads, the mechanical properties were deduced by applying different methodologies, (i) Standard (or monocyclic) loading, (ii) Continuous Stiffness Measurement mode, (iii) Constant and progressive multicycle loading, and (iv) Dynamic hardness computation. It has been found independently of the loading conditions, Martens hardness and elastic modulus are approximately 3.3 and 70 GPa, respectively. However, when cracking and chipping are produced during the indentation test, two damage parameters related to hardness and elastic modulus can be used for representing the decrease of the mechanical properties as a function of the relative penetration depth.

Multilayered thin films of Al/Cu/Fe have been prepared by magnetron sputtering and annealed into quasicrystalline and approximant phases on Al2O3 and Si substrates, respectively. The nanomechanical and nanotribological properties, such as hardness, elastic modulus, friction, and toughness, have been measured using a triboindenter and analytical methods. The approximant phase was proved to be slightly harder than the quasicrystalline phase with a hardness of about 15.6 GPa, and with a similar elastic modulus of about 258 GPa. These values however decreased rapidly with an increasing amount of Si in the approximant. The indentation toughness of the approximant, <0.1 MPa/m½, was however inferior to that of the quasicrystals with 1.5 MPa/m½. Friction coefficients were measured in a range of 0.10–0.14 for both the quasicrystalline and approximant thin films.

This paper aims to develop an integrated method to extract elastic–plastic parameters from a single instrumented spherical indentation curve. The expression of unloading work is chosen to be combined with the previous work [P. Jiang, T.H. Zhang et al, J. Mater. Res.24(3), 1045 (2009)]. An extensive numerical study was performed to examine the effectiveness of the method. Refitting Jiang's similarity solution based on the numerical study was also performed to simplify the form of the expression and improve the accuracy of the elastic–plastic parameters extracted. The results show that the error of our solution was less than ±5%. We also examined its sensitivity by assessing levels of artificial error introduced into the testing parameters used in the method. These results show that this method can provide reasonable estimates of the elastic–plastic parameters for most common metals.

A new technique based on the detection of the amplitude of the second harmonic was described in a previous paper. To compute the elastic modulus and the hardness of materials, the technique uses only the derivative of the contact radius with respect to the indentation depth. For this reason, this method is applicable only to homogeneous materials. In this paper, the method is extended to any materials with constant Young modulus. The indentation depth value is not needed at all, thus eliminating uncertainties related to the displacement measurement, which are very influent at small penetration depths. Furthermore, we also explain how to compute the indentation depth from the detection of the amplitude of the second harmonic. This new measurement technique was tested on three samples: fused silica, Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA), and calcite, which is expected to exhibit indentation size effect. The obtained results show that mechanical properties and the indentation depth can be determined with good accuracy for penetration depths between 25 and 100 nm using this method.

L'objectif de cette étude expérimentale est d'établir la distribution des propriétés mécaniques et morphologiques à travers la paroi d'un tube de transport du gaz naturel en polyéthylène de haute densité (HDPE). L'approche proposée utilise un filament continu et uniforme, automatiquement usiné du tube à faible vitesse de coupe et à profondeur de passe optimale afin de réduire le flux de chaleur ainsi que les modifications structurales. Des courbes typiques (σ−ε), dans chaque couche, sont obtenues sur une machine d'essai conçue pour les polymères et sont statistiquement analysées. Elles montrent que le comportement mécanique du tube en HDPE est pratiquement divisé en 3 zones distinctes dont la seconde reste la plus étendue. Le niveau de contrainte moyen exprimant l'étirage à froid pour une couche donnée est presque constant à travers l'épaisseur du tube. Les contraintes et le module d'élasticité donnent de très bonnes corrélations avec l'épaisseur indiquant une augmentation de la surface externe vers les couches internes. Ceci est expliqué par l'évolution de cristallinité durant le procédé de production faisant appel à un refroidissement échelonné dans le temps et qui génère des contraintes résiduelles. Les corrélations statistiques à l'écoulement plastique, au début de l'étirage à froid et à la rupture indiquent des relations linéaires acceptables pour une probabilité d'erreur p ≤ 0,05. D'autre part, une corrélation linéaire croissante caractérise la relation entre la contrainte limite et le module d'élasticité. Ce résultat est confirmé dans la littérature pour des éprouvettes standards obtenues par moulage en compression.