Scaling relations for viscoelastic – cohesive conical indentation

Abstract

Abstract Most geomaterials exhibit both viscoelastic and plastic material response when indented by a sharp conical tip. Lacking analytical solutions for viscoelastic – plastic material response, a numerical approach based on the finite element method is proposed for backcalculation of model parameters from indentation data. Departing from the analytical solutions recently obtained by Vandamme and Ulm, viscoelastic – cohesive conical indentation of a homogeneous material halfspace is dealt with in this paper. Results from finite element analysis, i. e., the load – penetration history for a rigid, conical indenter with linearly increasing load, are presented in dimensionless form. From the results, scaling relations are constructed for application to materials exhibiting viscoelastic – cohesive behavior.