DETERMINATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF THIN FILMS AND FUNCTIONAL GRADIENT MATERIALS USING INVERSE TECHNIQUE
This paper describes a method for evaluating material properties of multi-layered systems and functional gradient materials using data obtained from indentation testing. The measurement data collected from the penetration force-depth curves in the test are employed for identifying elastic moduli of thin films and functional gradient materials. An indentation problem is first analyzed on the basis of the three-dimensional axisymmetric theory of elasticity. Analyses of elastic contact problem, which an elastic axisymmetric indenter is penetrated into multi-layered systems and into functional gradient materials, are presented. An inverse analysis for determining Young’s moduli, Poisson’s ratios and radii of the contact area is performed under the assumption that the elastic moduli of the substrate and the indenter, and thicknesses for layers are known. When complex method is used for minimizing an objective function composed of errors, effective sampling of data obtained by penetrating indenters with various radii of curvature into the coated substrate and functional gradient materials is presented. INTRODUCTION Modern electric devices and mass storage devices have frequently multilayered structures to achieve a high performance and functionality. Furthermore, such devices are coated often by metal thin films to protect from the damage of external dusts and environment. It is important to estimate their mechanical properties for improving the reliability of devices and machines. Generally, mechanical properties of thin films deposited on a substrate are different from those of bulk. Hence, we need to know in-situ the mechanical properties of deposited films. However, it is very hard to carry out a test for evaluating the mechanical properties of films in a sub-micrometer thickness. Ihara, et al. estimated the material properties of a thin film using surface wave spectroscopy. Matui, et al. examined the accuracy of identified elastic moduli in a multilayered system. Kishimoto, et al. idetified the elastic properties for a bar of functional gradient materials. Indentation test is one of methods for evaluating the mechanical properties of thin films, which is the one estimating elastic moduli of thin films using experimental data of the force and the depth of an indenter penetrated into a multi-layered system. In the present paper, when data of the indentation force and depth are used, a method for identifying the mechanical properties of thin films and the distribution function of mechanical properties in functional gradient materials will be presented. ANALYSIS OF INDENTATION PROBLEMS In the present analysis, an axisymmetric elastic indenter with a cross section of f(r) will be penetrated into an elastic half-region composed of layers with various mechanical properties as shown in Figure 1. This contact problem is analyzed using the theory of threedimensional axisymmetric elasticity. Then, displacements and stresses in the layers, the indenter and the elastic half-region can be deduced by substituting Boussinesq’s potential functions, ψ and φ 3 , into the following relationships (Miyamoto 1977, Gladwell 1980).
On the determination of elastic coefficients from indentation experiments
The main result of this paper is the extension of the adjoint state method to variational inequalities. This is done for the Signorini contact problem (Kikuchi N and Oden J T 1988 Contact Problems in Elasticity: a Study of Variational Inequalities and Finite Element Methods (Philadelphia: SIAM)) and used for the identification of elastic coefficients from an indentation test. The result is obtained by two independent approaches based on the penalized and respectively, mixed formulations of the direct problem, a Signorini contact problem. An important and astonishing result is that the obtained adjoint problem is a linear problem with Dirichlet boundary conditions. This is expected for problems described with variational equalities (Bui H D 1993 Introduction Aux Problemes Inverses en Mecanique des Materiaux (Paris: Eyrolles) (Engl. Transl. (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press)), Lions J L 1968 Controle Optimal des Systemes Gouvernes par des Equations aux Derivees Partielles (Dunod)), but is a new result for problems described with variational inequalities. As an application, the elastic coefficients of an isotropic body have been identified from the knowledge of a displacement-force curve measured during an indentation test. The efficiency of the method is illustrated on numerical examples for the identification of a bimaterial and a functional gradient material.
Mechanical behaviour and durability of high volume fly ash cementitious composites
The purpose of this research is to separate different morphological particles of ASTM class F fly ash, and study their effect on mechanical behaviour and durability of high volume cementitious mixtures. In this research wet separation of raw fly ash is carried out, which resulted in three layers of different morphological particles. The first layer of particles float, comprise of about 1-5% of fly ash, is identified as cenospheres or hollow spheres. The second layer of particles is measured to be 55-60% of raw fly ash and consisting of porous spherical and rounded particles rich in Si and Al. The third layer particles is measured to be about 35-40% of raw fly ash. High volume fly ash cementitious composites containing second or third layer particles are tested under compression and bending, highlighting a higher strength and ductility in comparison to cementitious ones containing raw fly ash particles. KEYWORDS. Cementitious matrix; Raw fly ash; Second layer particles; Third layer particles.