A study of indentation scaling relationships of elastic-perfectly plastic solids with an inclusion near the conical indenter tip

Indentation hardness is found to be related to indentation depth when indentation test is applied on homogeneous materials under small indentation depth, which shows strong size effect in the indentation. While in contrast, indentation hardness has a very limited relationship with indentation depth when it is large, showing distinct scaling relationships between hardness and material properties. Previous studies on scaling relationships under deep indentation condition of elastic-perfectly plastic homogeneous materials have been carried out systematically by finite element analysis. In this paper, a heterogeneous material, particle-reinforced matrix composite is detailed studied to investigate its scaling relationships under deep indentation with different particle positions and material properties by finite element analysis.