Finite Element Analysis of Conical Indentation of Elastic-plastic Film/Substrate Systems

Dimensional analysis and finite element method(FEM) have been used in this paper to investigate the conical indentation of elastic plastic film/substrate systems.The scaling relationships derived from dimensional analysis bridge the indentation response and the elastic-plastic properties of both film and substrate.Several key variables of an indentation curve are revealed and examined,which can indicate that the maximum indentation force depends on the elastic-plastic properties of both film and substrate and the initial unloading slope is independent on the initial yield stress of the substrate with the moderate indentation depth.The investigation and analysis of this work might be beneficial to understanding deeply the conical indentation of the elastic plastic film/substrate system,and provide a potential way for developing the practicable technique to extract the mechanical properties of both film and substrate from the conical indentation test.