Measuring elastic parameters of transversely isotropic materials by cylindrical indentation

Abstract

Based on the cylindrical indention experiments, a novel model has been established to characterize the elastic mechanical property of transversely isotropic materials. In the first place, the influences of different loading orientations for indentation, and elastic parameters of materials on the indentation modulus of transversely isotropic materials are analyzed by means of theoretical and dimensional analysis. In the second place, three dimensional (3D) indentation experiments that encompass the wide range of transversely isotropic material parameters are simulated by finite element (FE) approach. Each quantity (transversely isotropic Young’s modulus, EP, longitudinal Young’s modulus, EL, longitudinal shear modulus, GL, and loading orientation angle, ) how affects the normalized indentation modulus is investigated. Then, the dimensionless analytical relationship between indentation modulus and elastic parameters is put up at three different indentation orientation angles . To prove the correctness of the proposed model, several groups of transversely isotropic materials are selected as input parameters to carry out indentation numerical experiments and the error analysis is made in detail. Simultaneously, the technique is specialized to the particular case of a Zinc single crystal material to verify the accuracy of these formulas derived. These good agreements show that the proposed method is reliable and it could be used to quantify the elastic parameters of the transversely isotropic materials.