Comparing AM200® with Titanium-Based Coatings Elastic–Plastic Properties by Nanoindentation, Modified Dimensional Analysis and Minimum Resultant Error Method

Abstract

AbstractHybrid methods which combine the experimental results with FEM simulations are the most applicable methods to extract the plastic properties of thin-film coatings. In order to make such methods more applicable, they should be merged with the dimensional analysis approach. To make such solution more applicable, a method to reduce the number of dimensionless functions is proposed in order to consider the effect of the probable errors of each parameter. Due to the lack of proper criteria for determining the compliance of the analytical results with empirical data, it was necessary to provide an effective criterion. A complementary new algorithm named as Minimum Resultant Error Method (MREM) is also introduced, which combines the errors of both dimensionless functions. By this algorithm, the yield stress, strain hardening exponent and consequently the strain hardening coefficient are extracted in the form of unique measures. This approach is implemented by minimum empirical data obtained by a single indenter nanoindentation test results. The FEA simulation results are processed with the combination of the aforementioned modified dimensional analysis and MREM algorithms. Such procedure is undergone to calculate plastic properties of AM200®, TiN and TiAlN thin-film coatings. Some of the results, especially for AM200® coating, are developed for the first time. The results obtained by nonlinear solution of the modified dimensional analysis equations and MREM algorithm are compared with one another. The results of both approaches show very small difference to each other which approves that MREM approach is an effective replacement for nonlinear solution. The sensibility of the answer to the hardening exponent and the errors combining exponent are investigated.