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Indentation analysis based on the concept of representative strain offers an effective way of obtaining mechanical properties, especially work-hardening behavior of metals, from reverse analysis of indentation load-displacement data, and does not require measuring of the projected contact area. The definition of representative strain adopted in previous studies [e.g., Dao et al., Acta Mater. 49, 3899 (2001)] has a weak physical basis, and it works only for a limited range in some sense of engineering materials. A new indentation stress-state based formulation of representation is proposed in this study, which is defined as the plastic strain during equi-biaxial loading. Extensive numerical analysis based on the finite element method has shown that with the new formulation of representative strain and representative stress, the critical normalized relationship between load and material parameters is essentially independent of the work-hardening exponent for all engineering materials, and the results also hold for three distinct indenter angles. The new technique is used for four materials with mechanical properties outside the applicable regime of previous studies, and the reverse analysis has validated the present analysis. The new formulation based on indentation stress-state based definition of representative strain has the potential to quickly and effectively measure the mechanical properties of essentially all engineering materials as long as their constitutive behavior can be approximated into a power-law form.

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