Experiments and crystal plasticity finite element simulations of nanoindentation on Ti–6Al–4V alloy

In this paper, we investigated the micromechanical behavior of Ti–6Al–4V by means of nanoindentation experiments performed on a specimen with duplex microstructure. After nanoindentation experiments, electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) scan was conducted on the nanoindentation region to obtain the crystallographic information. Then the crystal plasticity finite element (CPFE) simulations were carried out using the measured grain orientations. The simulated load–displacement curves match the experimental data well with proper model parameters. It was found that the hardness varied with the grain orientation, and the pileup patterns on the indented surfaces exhibit significant anisotropy and grain orientation dependence. The effects of grain boundary and orientation of Berkovich indenter on the nanoindentation results were discussed.