Material-dependent representative plastic strain for the prediction of indentation hardness

The definition of representative plastic strain induced by a Vickers indent has received considerable attention in recent years. Previous reports have attempted to define a universal value that was independent of a material’s plastic response. However, the work presented here will show that a material-dependent representative plastic strain is valid in the conversion of flow stress to indentation hardness. This representative plastic strain is the volume average plastic strain within the plastic zone of Vickers indentation. The increase in indentation hardness within the plastic zones of macro-indents was experimentally determined by micro-Vickers indentation and then compared with that predicted by finite element modeling, which utilizes the proposed representative plastic strain. It was further shown that the representative plastic strain defined here is independent of yield strength, elastic modulus and magnitude of prior plastic deformation for both linear and power law strain hardening materials.