A New Model Developed to Evaluate the Contact Area Arising During Nano-indentation Tests With Pileup Behavior of Metal Materials

A new mechanical model is developed in this paper for metal materials to investigate the behavior arising during the loading/unloading process of an indentation test. Two governing differential equations are derived for the depth solution of the indenter tip and the depth solution formed at the separation point, expressed in a power form. All spring/block and damping coefficients shown in these governing differential equations associated with the elastic/plastic and viscous behaviors are determined by the real-coded genetic algorithm. With the aid of experimental results of the depth at the indenter tip shown at large and small indentation depths, aluminum and steel were used as two examples of soft materials in this paper. The pileup behavior is implicitly included in the evaluation of the contact projected area (A) in the present model. A significant difference in is caused if the pileup is not considered in the model. Under a constant maximum load, the contact area is slightly increased by decreasing the loading/unloading rate.