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Abstract
A comprehensive understanding of the relationship between the hardness and the elastic and plastic properties for a wide range of materials is obtained by analysing the hardness characteristics (that are predicted by experimentally verified indentation analyses) of over 9000 distinct combinations of material properties that represent isotropic, homogeneous, power-law hardening metallic materials. Finite element analysis has been used to develop the indentation algorithms that provide the relationships between the elastic and plastic properties of the indented material and its indentation hardness. Based on computational analysis and virtual testing, the following observations are made. The hardness (H) of a material tends to increase with an increase in the elastic modulus (E), yield strength (σy) and the strain-hardening exponent (n). Several materials with different combinations of elastic and plastic properties can exhibit identical true hardness (for a particular indenter geometry/apex angle). In general, combinations of materials that exhibit relatively low elastic modulus and high yield strength or strain-hardening exponents and those that exhibit relatively high elastic modulus and low yield strength or strain-hardening exponents exhibit similar hardness properties. Depending on the strain-hardening characteristics of the indented material, (i.e. n = 0 or ), the ratio H/σy ranges, respectively, from 2.2 to 2.6 or 2 to 20 (for indentations with a cone angle of 70.3°). The materials that have lower σy/E and higher n exhibit higher H/σy ratios. The commonly invoked relationship between hardness and the yield strength, i.e. H ≈ 3σy, is not generally valid or applicable for all power-law hardening materials. The indentation hardness of a power law hardening material can be taken as following the relationship H ≈ (2.1–2.8)σr where σr is the representative stress based on Tabor’s representative strain for a wide range of materials.