A characteristic of spherical indentation curve and its application in measuring material properties

The spherical indentation obeys Hertz contact theory when the applied load is within the elastic limit. Once the applied load is over the elastic limit, the indentation curve starts to deviate from the original purely elastic indentation curve. This deviation point, which indicates the start of the nonlinear deformation, is an important characteristic of a spherical indentation curve. The indentation force corresponding to the deviation point is related to a basic material constant, which is the yield stress for an elastic-plastic material or the transformation stress for a shape memory alloy. This relationship can be applied to measure the yield stress or the transformation stress from a simple spherical indentation curve. Detailed discussion on the relationship and the method is presented in this short paper.