NUMERICAL-EXPERIMENTAL METHOD FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF PLASTIC PROPERTIES OF POLYMERS FROM MICROHARDNESS TESTS

A computational method in conjunction with indentation measurements is presented to determine the yield stress and the tangential modulus of different polymeric materials. A novel approach is developed to selec t representative points at which finite element calculations are perfo rmed. Yield stress and tangential modulus can be obtained by minimizin g the deviation between the calculated and the experimental data. Hard ness values are also derived using finite element calculations and com pared to those obtained from the fitting to the loading curve of depth -sensing experiments. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserv ed.