NANOINDENTATION

Modern engineering to construct new facilities or improvements already needs existing materials
having enhanced mechanical properties. Nanoindentation is called as the depth sensing
indentation or the instrumented indentation. Nanoindentation method gained popularity with the
development of machines that can record small load and displacement with high accuracy and
precision and with analytical models by which the load-displacement data can be used to
determine modulus, hardness and other mechanical properties. In nanoindentation a prescribed
load is applied to an indenter in contact with a sample. As the load is applied, the depth of
penetration is measured. The area of contact at full load is determined by the depth of the
impression and the known angle or radius of the indenter. The hardness is found by dividing the
load by the area of contact. Shape of the unloading curve provides a measure of elastic modulus.
Continuous nanoindentation was performed as following six steps: approaching to surface as
accurately as possible, loading to peak load, holding the indenter at peak load, unloading 90% of
peak load for 50 seconds, holding the indenter after 90% unloading for 100 seconds, and finally,
unloading completely. An arrayed line of indents was made from fiber and matrix with different
spacing, depending on indentation depth. The load-displacement data from the nanoindentation
tests can be used to calculate hardness and elastic modulus. The dependence of the loadindentation and knowledge of the geometry of the indenter allows direct calculation of the depth
of imprint, the contact area of the indenter and tested material and the speed of load change with
the change of depth. While the calculation of the hardness and elastic modulus depend on the
model response of the material. The most commonly used model is the model Oliver-Pharr. The
hardness ( H ) of the samples for an indentation depth (h) can be calculated from the following
equation:
(1)

Where Pmax refers to the

load measured at a maximum
depth of penetration (h) in an indentation cycle, while A refers to the projected area of contact
between the indenter and sample at Pmax. The combined modulus of the system, or reduced
indentation modulus ( Er ) can be determined from the following expression:

(2)

Where

is the slope of the line in tangent to the initial unloading curve in the load-

displacement plot.
The sample modulus ( Es ) can then be calculated as follows:

(3)

Where Vs and vi are the Poissons ratios of the specimen and indenter, respectively, while Ei is
the modulus of the indenter.
Particularly important is the determination of two parameters: the hardness and elastic modulus.
The perfect solution is to measure these parameters using indentation. During the indentation
measurement precisely explore the probe as a function of the applied load, the load increase and
reduction. As a result of experiment, we obtain the functional relationship between the depth of
penetration load of the test material while increasing the load (plastic-elastic response) and
during the load reduction that contains only information about the elastic response of the
material. The use of appropriate equations of elastic deformation of solids total contact
relationship with the load-depth allows to determine hardness and elastic modulus of the test
material. The equations of the elastic bodies in touch depends on the geometry of the indenters.
One of the most popular intenders are trihedral Berkovich indenter.

Example of geometry measurement of Berkovich indenter is presented in Figure 1

During an instrumented indentation test the applied test force and the indentation depth of the
indenter are continuously measured. The Berkovich indenter has an equilateral triangle as the
base and an angle of 65.03 between the axis of the pyramid and the three faces. The cube
corner indenter is similar to the Berkovich indenter however the angle between the axis of the
pyramid and the three faces is 35.2