Hardness and elastic modulus can be derived from instrumented sharp indentation curves by considering the effects of materials pile-up and sink-in and tip blunting. In particular, this study quantifies pile-up or sink-in effects in determining contact area based on indentation-curve analysis. Two approaches, finite-element simulation and theoretical modeling, were used to describe the detailed contact morphologies. The ratio of contact depth to maximum indentation depth was proposed as a key indentation parameter and was found to be a material constant independent of indentation load. In addition, this parameter can be determined strictly in terms of indentation-curve parameters, such as loading and unloading slopes at maximum depth and indentation energy ratio. This curve-analysis method was verified by finite-element simulations and nanoindentation experiments.
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