Characterization of Indentation Size Effect of Hardness Using a Loading Curve from Crystalline Materials

Nanoindentation technique has been widely used for measuring mechanical properties from a very small volume of material. The hardness measured using the depth sensing nanoindentation technique often decreases with increasing indentation size, the so called indentation size effect (ISE)[1, 2]. It has been generally acknowledged that the ISE in crystalline materials originates from the density change of geometrically necessary dislocations (GND) needed to accommodate a permanent indentation imprint. Conventionally, to characterize an ISE often requires a series measurement of hardness values at different indentation size. Based on the celebrated Oliver-Pharr scheme[3]. We propose a method to derive the ISE from the loading curve of one single indentation test. The application and limitation of the proposed method will be discussed.