Influence of hardening behaviour of elastoplastic materials on the determination of elastic modulus using indentation tests

The influence of hardening behaviour of elastoplastic materials on the determination of elastic modulus using indentation tests was studied by determining the elastic moduli of two typical hardening models using the method based on the power law model. It is shown that good identified results can be obtained when the equivalent strain hardening exponent is less than a certain value. The equivalent strain hardening exponent is obtained by fitting the plastic part of the stress–strain curve of the material using a power function. The finding denotes that the elastic moduli of materials which exhibit complicated hardening behaviour may be determined by using a method developed based a simple material model under certain conditions.