Numerical modeling of Vickers indentation on polycrystalline alumina

Indentation techniques are usually simple and effective methods to characterize ceramics properties. This article establishes a numerical model of Vickers indentation by using the general exponent Drucker-Prager model, which is suitable for materials whose compressive yield strength is much higher than tensile strength. In addition, a standard method for calculating the diagonal length of indentation is also proposed. Using this FE model, several numerical simulations of Vickers indentation process are conducted. Then, through measuring the indentation morphology with the proposed method, the Vickers hardness is calculated, which has excellent agreement with the experiment results. The comparison results of simulation and experiment show that the proposed numerical model is robust and effective. It is very promising in modeling the indentation process.