An analytical approach for relating hardness and yield strength for materials with high ratio of yield strength to Young modulus

摘要

For materials with a high ratio of Y to the elastic modulus, E, experimental data show that the ratio of the hardness to the flow stress decreases from 3 toward 1 as Y/E increases. This behaviour is predicted by finite element calculations but to date analytical expressions have not been able to correctly predict the relation between Y and H nor have they been able to show how the geometry of the indenter is important. Therefore, in this paper the correlation between H and Y for such materials is re-examined using an analytical approach to provide a physical interpretation, which explains the trends observed.