The frictional sliding response of elasto-plastic materials in contact with a conical indenter

Over the past decade, many computational studies have explored the mechanics of normal indentation. Quantitative relationships have been well established between the load–displacement hysteresis response and material properties. By contrast, very few studies have investigated broad quantitative aspects of the effects of material properties, especially plastic deformation characteristics, on the frictional sliding response of metals and alloys. The response to instrumented, depth-sensing frictional sliding, hereafter referred to as a scratch test, could potentially be used for material characterization. In addition, it could reproduce a basic tribological event, such as asperity contact and deformation, at different length scales for the multi-scale modeling of wear processes. For these reasons, a comprehensive study was undertaken to investigate the effect of elasto-plastic properties, such as flow strength and strain hardening, on the response to steady-state frictional sliding. Dimensional analysis was used to define scaling variables and universal functions. The dependence of these functions on material properties was assessed through a detailed parametric study using the finite element method. The strain hardening exponent was found to have a greater influence on the scratch hardness and the pile-up height during frictional sliding than observed in frictionless normal indentation. When normalized by the penetration depth, the pileup height can be up to three times larger in frictional sliding than in normal indentation. Furthermore, in contrast to normal indentation, sink-in is not observed during frictional sliding over the wide range of material properties examined. Finally, friction between indenter and indented material was introduced in the finite element model, and quantitative relationships were also established for the limited effects of plastic strain hardening and yield strength on the overall friction coefficient. Aspects of the predictions of computational simulations were compared with experiments on carefully selected metallic systems in which the plastic properties were systematically controlled. The level of accuracy of the predicted frictional response is also assessed by recourse to the finite element method and by comparison with experiment