Application of strength properties determined by nanoindentations to describe the material response in micro- and macro-indentation

The application of materials’ strength properties determined by nanoindentations to describe analytically micro- and macro-scale procedures such as Vickers, Rockwell and ball indentation is investigated. Various materials were tested by nanoindentations and their stress–strain curves and hardness were determined by appropriate evaluation of the related measurements’ results via FEM-based algorithms. Based on these properties, the contact geometry between the indenter and the specimen during micro- and macro-indentations, as well as the remaining impression dimensions after unloading were defined via FEM-supported calculations. The correlation between experimental and computational results concerning the hardness values and impression data was satisfactory.