On the measurement of stress–strain curves by spherical indentation

Abstract It has been proposed that with the appropriate models, instrumented indentation test (IIT) data can be reduced to yield the uniaxial stress–strain behavior of the test material. However, very little work has been done to directly compare the results from uniaxial tension and spherical indentation experiments. In this work, indentation and uniaxial tension experiments have been performed on the aluminum alloy 6061-T6. The purpose of these experiments was to specifically explore the accuracy with which the analytical models can be applied to IIT data to predict the uniaxial stress–strain behavior of the aluminum alloy. Despite not being able to reproduce the physical shape of the uniaxial stress–strain curve, the results do indicate that spherical indentation can be successfully used to establish an engineering estimate of the elastic modulus and yield strength of 6061-T6.