New expanding cavity model for indentation hardness including strain-hardening and indentation size effects

An expanding cavity model (ECM) for determining indentation hardness of elastic-strain-hardening plastic materials is developed. The derivation is based on a strain gradient plasticity solution for an internally pressurized thick-walled spherical shell of an elastic linear-hardening material. Closed-form formulas are provided for both conical and spherical indentations. The formulas explicitly show that indentation hardness depends on Young's modulus, yield stress, strain-hardening index, and strain gradient coefficient of the indented material as well as on the geometry of the indenter. The newly formulated ECM can capture the indentation size effect, unlike classical plasticity based ECMs. The new model reduces to existing classical plasticity based ECMs (including Johnson's ECM for elastic-perfectly plastic materials) when the strain gradient effect is not considered. The presently developed ECM is validated by comparing with existing experimental hardness data. The numerical results obtained using the new model reveal that the hardness is indeed indentation size dependent when the indentation radius is very small: the smaller the indentation, the larger the hardness. Also, the indentation hardness is seen to increase with the Young's modulus and strain-hardening level of the indented material for both conical and spherical indentations. The strain-hardening effect on the hardness is observed to be significant for materials having strong strain-hardening characteristics. In addition, it is found that the indentation hardness increases with decreasing cone angle of the conical indenter or decreasing radius of the spherical indenter. These trends agree with existing experimental observations and model predictions. © 2006 Materials Research Society.