Nanoindentation Test Integrated with Numerical Simulation to Characterize Mechanical Properties of Rock Materials

Abstract

It is important to determine the mechanical properties of rock materials accurately from the viewpoint of the design, analysis, and modeling of various transportation infrastructure systems. Conventional methods have some drawbacks, including relatively inaccurate measurements, cumbersome testing-analysis processes, and high variability in measurements. A nanoindentation test integrated with a numerical modeling technique has been validated in other fields as an efficient and accurate tool for the characterization of the key mechanical properties of various irregularly shaped materials, such as the rock materials in this study. This paper presents an integrated experimental-numerical effort based on the nanoindentation measurement and finite-element modeling of a representative rock material, limestone. The experimental efforts, including specimen fabrication and laboratory tests, are presented, and the corresponding analyses of test results combined with the finite-element technique and linear interpolation to evaluate the property measurements are discussed. The elastic properties estimated from the nanoindentation test are similar to the simulation results, demonstrating the validity of the test method and modeling approach.The success of the proposed approach should facilitate the better design of mixtures and structures based on the more accurate characterization of the core material properties.

Mechanical Properties of Mineral Stone Wool Fibers Based on Mixture of Blast Furnace Slag and Diabase.

“…Samples of BFSD primary layer were inserted into epoxy resin and prepared by a standard metallographic method with grinding and polishing, for the purpose of optical microscopy and mechanical nanoindentation tests [16,17]. Mechanical tests were performed on a Nanoindenter AG 200 using DCMII measuring head which allowed greater sensitivity under small loads.…”

Substrate effects and evaluation of elastic moduli of components of inhomogeneous films by nanoindentation

“…Mainly these methods are used to evaluate mechanical characteristics of homogeneous and vertically inhomogeneous materials. For examples, the indentation techniques has been used in biomechanics for mechanical characterization of biological samples such as insect cuticle, plant cuticle and snake skin [3] or for characterization of the properties of bones [4], in civil engineering and geomechanics to evaluate elastic properties of coals, rocks and cementitious materials and ability of rocks to be destructed or for mechanical characterization of coals [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13]. The information on the degree of inhomogeneity, structural composition, hardness and brittleness of components of the materials plays an important role in assessing strength, developing fracture models and estimation of other properties.…”

Evaluation of elastic modulus and hardness of highly inhomogeneous materials by nanoindentation

“…[16,17,27,40,43,45,46] and references therein). There are a few recently published works that utilize the depth-sensing nanoindentation for inhomogeneous materials such as rocks [2,47]. Although applications of DSNI techniques to coals were recently discussed by Kožušníková [32], solely microindentation techniques were employed and the specific features of the application of the nanoindentation techniques were not considered.…”