A Simple Method for Measuring Plastic Properties of Power Hardening Metals via the Indentation Curve with a Large Depth.

The spherical indentation technique provides an easy way to evaluate the integrity of in-service structures because it is nondestructive. In this study, a simple method was proposed to measure mechanical properties such as the yield strength, the ultimate tensile strength, and the strain hardening exponent from the indentation curve at a large indentation depth, which is 0.4 times of the indenter radius. Based on finite element analyses, a simple function was proposed to relate representative stress to indentation data. Besides, representative strains at different indentation depths were identified according to the load-depth curves from simulations. The calculated plastic properties from the developed method were compared well with experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]