Oliver–Pharr indentation method in determining elastic moduli of shape memory alloys—A phase transformable material

Instrumented indentation test has been extensively applied to study the mechanical properties such as elastic modulus of different materials. The Oliver–Pharr method to measure the elastic modulus from an indentation test was originally developed for single phase materials. During a spherical indentation test on shape memory alloys (SMAs), both austenite and martensite phases exist and evolve in the specimen due to stress-induced phase transformation. The question, “What is the measured indentation modulus by using the Oliver–Pharr method from a spherical indentation test on SMAs?” is answered in this paper. The finite element method, combined with dimensional analysis, was applied to simulate a series of spherical indentation tests on SMAs. Our numerical results indicate that the measured indentation modulus strongly depends on the elastic moduli of the two phases, the indentation depth, the forward transformation stress, the transformation hardening coefficient and the maximum transformation strain. Furthermore, a method based on theoretical analysis and numerical simulation was established to determine the elastic moduli of austenite and martensite by using the spherical indentation test and the Oliver–Pharr method. Our numerical experiments confirmed that the proposed method can be applied in practice with satisfactory accuracy. The research approach and findings can also be applied to the indentation of other types of phase transformable materials.