DETERMINATION OF CREEP PARAMETERS FROM INDENTATION CREEP EXPERIMENTS

The possibilities of determining creep parameters for a simple Norton law material are explored from indentation creep testing. Using creep finite element analysis the creep indentation test technique is analyzed in terms of indentation rates at constant loads. Emphasis is placed on the relationships between the steady creep behavior of indentation systems and the creep property of the indented materials. The role of indenter geometry, size effects and macroscopic constraints is explicitly considered on indentation creep experiments. The influence of macroscopic constraints from the material systems becomes important when the size of the indenter is of the same order of magnitude as the size of the testing material. Two methods have been presented to assess the creep property of the indented material from the indentation experimental results on the single-phase-material and two-phase-material systems. The results contribute to a better mechanical understanding and extending the application of indentation creep testing.

Computer Simulation of the Indentation Creep Tests on Particle-Reinforced Composites

A systematical simulation has been carried out on the indentation creep test on particle-reinforced composites. The deformation, failure mechanisms and life are analyzed by three reasonable models. The following five factors have been considered simultaneously: creep property of the particle, creep property of the matrix, the shape of the particle, the volume fraction of the particle and the size (relative size to the particle) of the indentation indenter. For all the cases, the power law respecting to the applied stress can be used to model the steady indentation creep depth rate of the indenter, and the detail expressions have been presented. The computer simulation precision is analyzed by the two-phase model and the three-phase model. Two places of the stress concentration are found in the composites. One is ahead of the indentation indenter, where the high stress state is deduced by the edge of the indenter and will decrease rapidly near to a steady value with the creep time. The other one is at the interface, where the high stress state is deduced by the misfit of material properties between the particles and matrix. It has been found that the creep dissipation energy density other than a stress parameter can be used to be the criterion to model the debonding of the interfaces. With the criterion of the critical creep dissipation energy density, a power law to the applied stress with negative exponent can be used to model the failure life deduced by the debonding of interfaces. The influences of the shape of the particles and the matching of creep properties of particle and matrix can be discussed for the failure. With a crack model, the further growth of interface crack is analyzed, and some important experimental phenomena can be predicted. The failure mechanism which the particle will be punched into matrix has been also discussed. The critical differences between the creep properties of the particles and matrix have been calculated, after a parameter has been defined. In the view of competition of failure mechanisms, the best matching of the creep properties of the two phases and the best shape of the particles are discussed for the composite design.

ANALYSIS ON PSEUDO-STEADY INDENTATION CREEP

Theoretical analysis and finite element （FE） simulation have been carried out for a constant specific load rate （CSLR） indentation creep test. Analytical results indicate that both the representative stress and the indentation strain rate become constant after a transient period. Moreover, the FE simulation reveals that both the contours of equivalent stress and equivalent plastic strain rate underneath the indenter evolve with geometrical self-similarity. This suggests that pseudo-steady indentation creep occurs in the region beneath the indenter. The representative points in the region are defined as the ones with the equivalent stress equal to the representative stress. In addition, it is revealed that the proportionality between indentation strain rate and equivalent plastic strain rate holds at the representative points during the pseudo-steady indentation creep of a power law material. A control volume （CV） beneath the indenter, which governs the indenter velocity, is identified. The size of the CV at the indented surface is approximately 2.5 times the size of the impression. The stress exponent for creep can be obtained from the pseudosteady indentation creep data. These results demonstrate that the CSLR testing technique can be used to evaluate creep parameters with the same accuracy as conventional uniaxial creep tests.

DETERMINATION OF CREEP PROPERTIES OF THERMAL BARRIER COATING(TBC)SYSTEMS FROM THE INDENTATION CREEP TESTING WITH ROUND FLAT INDENTERS

Indentation creep behavior with cylindrical flat indenters on the thermal barrier coating (TBC) was studied by finite element method (FEM). On ike constant applied indentation creep stress, there is a steady creep rate for each case studied for different creep properties of the TBC system. The steady creep depth rate depends on the applied indentation creep stress and size of the indenters as well as the creep properties of the bond coat of the TBC and the substrate. The possibilities to determine the creep properties of a thermal barrier system from indention creep testing were discussed. As an example, with two different size indenters, the creep properties of bond coat of the TBC system can be derived by an inverse FEM method. This study not only provides a numerical method to obtain the creep properties of the TBC system, but also extends the application of indentation creep method with cylindrical flat indenters.

Creep rate sensitivities of materials by a depth-sensing indentation technique

The strain rate sensitivity to creep of single crystal Cu（110）, metal tantalum, and 128°Y-X LiNbO3 piezoelectric single crystal were measured at room temperature by MTS Nanoindenter XP. Among the three kinds of materials studied, Cu showed the highest degree of resistance to creep-induced deformation, which is followed by Ta, while the LiNbO3 single crystal deformed more readily than the others. The values of the steady-state strain rate sensitivities determined by the indentation methods are in the range of 0.002-0.006, 0.02-0.06 and 0.02-0.03 for Cu, Ta, and LiNbO3, respectively. The mechanisms for the indentation-induced creeping behavior and the factors that influenced the creeping are discussed.

Determination of Elastic and Creep Properties of Thin-film Systems from indentation Experiments

Based on the detailed computer simulation of the indentation testing on the thin-film systems, the present paper explores the detailed procedure of determining elastic properties (elastic modulusE^(f) and Poisson ratio v(f)) and creep parameters (CCREEP^(f) and nCREEP^(f)) for a simple Norton law (ε=CCREEP^(f)σ^n CREE^(f), where e is creep strain rate, and a is the stress) material for a thin film coated on a creep substrate, whose elastic properties(E^(s) and v^(s)) and creep properties (CCREEP^(s) and nCREEP^(s)) of the substrate are known, from indentation elastic and creep testing,respectively. The influences of the thickness of the thin-film and the size of the indenter on the indentation behavior have been discussed. It is shown that the boundary between the thin film and the substrate has great influence on the indentation creep behavior. The relative sizes of indentation systems are chosen so that the behavior of the indentation on the film is influenced by the substrate. The two elastic parameters E^(f) and v^(f) of the film are coupled on the influence of the elastic behavior of indentation. With the two different size indenters, the two elastic parameters E^(f) and v^(f) of the film can be uniquely determined by the indentation experimental slopes of depth to applied net section stress results. The procedure of determining of the two Norton law parameters CCREEP^(f) and nCREEP^(f) includes the following steps by the steady indentation rate d. The first step to calculate the creep indentation rate on certain loads of the two different sizes of indenters on a set of assumed values of CCREEP^(f) and nCREEP^(f)Then to build relationship between the creep indentation rate and the assumed CCREEP^(f) and nCREEP^(f) With the experimental creep indentation rate to intersect two sets of which have the same values of d. The last step is to build the CCREEP^(f) and nCREEP^(f)curves from the intersection points for the two indenters. These two curves CCREEP^(f) and nCREEP^(f)

Microstructures and Mechanical Properties of Al-Zn-Sn Bearing Alloys for High Performance Applications

The mechanical behavior and indentation creep of Al-20 wt% Zn bearing alloy has been modified with adding 0.2 wt%, 0.5 wt%, 1 wt%, 1.5 wt% Sn. These bearing alloys were prepared by melt spinning technique. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to study the morphology of the melt spun alloys and x-ray diffractometer (XRD) for the identification of the phases pre- sent in these melt-spun bearing alloys. The results show that the structure of Al80-x-Zn20-SnX (X = 0.2%, 0.5%, 1% and 1.5%) bearing alloys is characterized by the presence of α-Al of FCC structure and SnZn intermetallic compound of anorthic structure. The Al-20Zn-1.5Sn has a smaller crystallite size and grain size as indicated from X-ray and SEM analysis respectively, which leading to the enhancement of the mechanical properties. The mechanical properties and indentation creep of these bearing alloys were studied by tensile test machine and vickers indentation testing at room temperature, respectively. The Al-20Zn-1.5Sn has higher hardness value and creep resistance than other alloys. This was attributed to the strengthen effect of Sn as a strong solid solution element in Al-matrix. The stress exponent values in the range 2.4 - 4.2 indicate that the grain boundary sliding is the possible mechanism during room temperature creep deformation of melt-spun Al-Zn-Sn bearing alloys.