EFFECT OF TIP AREA FUNCTION ON NANOINDENTATION RESULTS

The tip area function and its calibration method were introduced based on the basic principles of nanoindentation. A nanoindentation test on a fused silica and the calibration of the tip area function were performed in sequence. The test and calibration were repeated one year later. It was found that two tip area functions got from calibrations varied significantly. Calculating the data collected from the fused silica one year later by using the tip area function got from the first calibration leaded to big differences between results of Young′s modulus and that of hardness. The calibration of tip area function played an important role in nanoindentation test.