TY - JOUR
T1 - The compensational boundary method to calculate the projected contact area of nanoindentation in atomistic simulations
AU - Xu, Zhenhai
AU - Zhao, Yihui
AU - Yuan, Lin
AU - Qin, Yi
AU - Chen, Mingjun
AU - Shan, Debin
PY - 2016/2/1
Y1 - 2016/2/1
N2 - The atomistic simulation of nanoidentation has become a powerful method to probe the mechanical behaviour and properties of small volumes of materials. It is crucial to calculate the projected contact area (PCA) accurately in order to obtain a reliable value of nanoindentation hardness. In this work, atomistic simulations of nanoindentation were performed on the Cu(111) and Ag(111) surfaces, and a new compensational boundary method is proposed to calculate the PCA. Compared with other available methods, this method provides a clear physical implication, and works well independently of the contact depth and the deformation behaviour of the material. It is also concluded that the widely-used experimental Oliver–Pharr (O–P) method significantly underestimates the PCA in atomistic simulations, and does not work for shallow nanoindentation at the nanoscale.
AB - The atomistic simulation of nanoidentation has become a powerful method to probe the mechanical behaviour and properties of small volumes of materials. It is crucial to calculate the projected contact area (PCA) accurately in order to obtain a reliable value of nanoindentation hardness. In this work, atomistic simulations of nanoindentation were performed on the Cu(111) and Ag(111) surfaces, and a new compensational boundary method is proposed to calculate the PCA. Compared with other available methods, this method provides a clear physical implication, and works well independently of the contact depth and the deformation behaviour of the material. It is also concluded that the widely-used experimental Oliver–Pharr (O–P) method significantly underestimates the PCA in atomistic simulations, and does not work for shallow nanoindentation at the nanoscale.
KW - projected contact area
KW - nanoindentation
KW - atomistic simulation
UR - http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0927025615006734
U2 - 10.1016/j.commatsci.2015.10.026
DO - 10.1016/j.commatsci.2015.10.026
M3 - Article
VL - 112
SP - 185
EP - 192
JO - Computational Materials Science
JF - Computational Materials Science
SN - 0927-0256
IS - A
ER -