Bridging Nanoindentation And Macro Tensile Testing

The properties of a material, such as yield strength, elastic modulus, stress and strain values, and ultimate tensile strength are usually found by using the method of tensile testing. Unfortunately, thin film coatings are impossible to test using these conventional methods. Tensile testers are normally used for bulk samples of at least millimeter dimensions. Tin film coatings of a nanometer to several micrometers are more fragile and easily deformable. They are also most of the time attached to a more bulky substrate. It is therefore impossible to get direct standard mechanical properties using tensile technique. In some cases, even bulk samples cannot be destroyed or easily tested using this technique. In this application, we have used nanoindentation technique to provide a data that closes the gap to standard macro tensile data.

APPLICATION NOTE: http://www.nanovea.com/Application%20Notes/nanoindentationtensiletesting.pdf