Shane E.

Flores
Michael G. Pontin
Frank W. Zok
Materials Department,
University of California,
Santa Barbara, CA 93106

Scratching of Elastic/Plastic
Materials With Hard Spherical
Indenters
A mechanistic framework has been developed for interpreting scratch tests performed
with spherical indenters on elastic/plastic materials. The pertinent scaling relations have
been identified through a plastic analysis and the model has been subsequently calibrated
by finite element calculations. The results show that the ratio of scratch force to normal
force (or apparent friction coefficient) can be partitioned into two additive components:
one due to interfacial friction and another associated with plastic deformation. The
plastic component scales parabolically with the normal force and depends only weakly
on the true (elastic) friction coefficient. A simple formula for the scratch force, based on
the plastic analysis and the numerical results, has been derived. Finally, experimental
measurements on two material standards commonly used for nanoindenter calibration
have been used to verify the theoretical results. DOI: 10.1115/1.2966268

Introduction

The advent of instrumented nanoindenters some two decades

ago has enabled an unprecedented capability for probing the mechanical properties of materials over a wide range of length scales
from nm to mm and forces from N to N. In addition to their
now-routine use in measuring material stiffness and hardness,
nanoindenters allow studies of creep, dynamic loading, thin film
behavior, fracture, and adhesion. Good summaries of the test
methods and the underlying mechanics are presented in textbooks
by Bhushan 1 and Fischer-Cripps 2 as well as a recent review
article by Gouldstone et al. 3. A comparatively recent advancement in the field has been the development of instrumented indenter probes that can be displaced in a precise manner both normal and tangential to the sample surface. These probes allow
measurement of tribological propertiesthose involving friction,
abrasion, and wearat length scales and force ranges typical of
normal indentation 415. Despite the technological advancements, analysis protocols for extracting fundamental material
properties from such tests have not reached maturity levels comparable to those used to ascertain modulus and hardness from
indentation tests.
The principal goal of the present article is to outline a mechanistic framework for interpreting measurements from scratch tests
on elastic/plastic materials with spherical indenters. The latter
shape selection is motivated by the fact that, at low force levels,
stresses beneath a spherical indenter are below the elastic limits
and hence the tribological properties can be ascertained in the
absence of plasticity; yet, at higher force levels, responses in the
transitional elastic/plastic and the fully plastic regimes can also be
probed. In contrast, with sharp-tipped indenters such as the cubecorner, Berkovich, and cone, the accessible behavioral domains
are far more restricted. That is, because of the self-similar deformation fields associated with sharp tips, the strain level is fixed
independent of normal force and dictated by indenter shape
1618. Probing material properties over a range of strains requires use of indenters of varying shapes. Even then, if the tips are
very sharp, measurements cannot be made in the elastic domain.
Selection of the spherical indenter is further motivated by the
recognition that the asperities that make contact during sliding of
Contributed by the Applied Mechanics Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF APPLIED MECHANICS. Manuscript received January 22, 2008; final manuscript received June 30, 2008; published online August 22, 2008. Review conducted
by Zhigang Suo.

Journal of Applied Mechanics

surfaces are more closely represented by protuberances with a

constant finite curvature rather than ones with infinitely sharp
points.
As a prelude to forthcoming results and to provide perspective,
the test conditions of interest and the dominant behavioral domains are illustrated in Fig. 1. Here a rigid sphere is pressed into
contact with a flat slab of plastically deformable material with
normal force FN and subsequently slid across the slab surface with
lateral force FL. At sufficiently low levels of FN, wherein the
contact is elastic, sliding occurs subject to Coulombs law, with
friction coefficient FL / FN. In contrast, at high force levels,
both initial normal contact and subsequent sliding involve plastic
deformation. In this domain, the normalized scratch force or apparent friction coefficient, FL / FN, increases approximately parabolically with FN and exceeds the true elastic friction coefficient. An intermediate force range exists within which
deformation involves comparable amounts of elastic and plastic
strains and the curves in Fig. 1 transition accordingly. The high
load domain is the main focus of the present article.
The remainder of this article consists of three parts. In the first,
an approximate analytical model of scratching of a rigid, perfectly
plastic material based on a virtual work analysis is presented. The
model is used to identify the scaling relation between the scratch
force and the geometric and material properties resulting in the
nondimensional parameters of the coordinate axes in Fig. 1.
Next, finite element calculations are used to investigate the effects
of normal force and friction coefficient on scratch force, with the
goal of ascertaining the key nondimensional parameters. Finally,
experimental measurements on two material standards are presented and compared with the model predictions.

Analytical Model

A lower-bound estimate of the scratch force is obtained using

established theorems of classical plasticity. The geometry to be
analyzed is depicted by the schematic in the top right corner of
Fig. 1. Scratching proceeds in two steps. First, a rigid spherical
indenter of radius R is pushed into a flat semi-infinite slab of rigid,
perfectly plastic material with normal force, FN. The radius, a, of
the resulting indentation is given by 19
a = C1Ru0 =

FN
C2y

where u0 is the maximum penetration depth, y is the material

yield strength, C1 = 2.7, and C2 = 3.0. The indenter is then moved

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Fig. 1 Overview of the scratch configuration, the dominant behavioral domains, and the trends in scratch force with normal force and friction
coefficient

laterally in the x-direction while maintaining constant normal

force. Three additional assumptions are invoked. i Sliding at the
interface between the two bodies obeys Coulombs law. ii The
scratch depth us is equal to the initial indentation depth u0 verified by subsequent finite element calculations. iii The forces at
the indenter/material interface remain below those needed to produce sticking friction.
In the steady-state domain, the rate of work done by scratching,
dW / dx = FL, can be partitioned into two components: one,
dW p / dx, due to plastic deformation beneath the indenter tip, and
another, dW f / dx, from frictional sliding. The rate of dissipation is
obtained from an analysis of the following virtual sequence of
operations illustrated in Fig. 2. i A thin slab of thickness dx
perpendicular to the scratch direction and upstream from the
scratch tip is removed from the sample. ii The slab is indented
by a cylindrical roller of radius R under plane strain conditions to
produce a cylindrical divot of width 2a and depth us identical to
those in the scratch wake. iii The indenter is slid across the
surface of the slab a distance dx. iv The deformed slab is
pasted onto the opposite face, downstream from the scratch tip,
thereby advancing the indenter tip by a distance dx. The work
done during this sequence in Steps ii and iii in particular is
dW
= FL =
dx

This relation identifies the two pertinent nondimensional parameters: the normalized scratch force, FL / FN, and the normalized
normal force, FN / R2y. These represent the parameters on the
coordinate axes in Fig. 1 and are utilized in the presentation of
subsequent numerical and experimental results.

Numerical Analysis

3.1 Finite Element Model. Calculations of scratch response

were performed using the commercial finite element code

u0

f Nudu + FN

where f Nu is the force per unit length of cylinder, given by

f Nu = 2ayC3

where C3 2.5 3 20. Combining Eqs. 13 and integrating

yields
FL
= + k0
FN

FN
R 2 y

where
k0

4C3
0.05
3C1C23/2

061021-2 / Vol. 75, NOVEMBER 2008

Fig. 2 Schematic of virtual cutting, indenting, and pasting operations used to model steady-state scratching

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Fig. 3 Finite element mesh used for scratch and indentation simulations
ABAQUS/EXPLICITV6.4. For consistency with the experiments described in the next section, the indenter is modeled as a rigid
axisymmetric cone with a full apical angle 2 = 60 deg and a
spherical tip of radius R. All other length scales are subsequently
normalized by R so the absolute value of R is arbitrary. The indenter is meshed with four-noded 3D rigid elements. The material
being indented is represented by a biased mesh refined near the
indentation surface and coarser toward its base using eight-noded
3D brick elements with reduced integration Fig. 3. Although all
results are presented in a nondimensional form, the absolute material properties for most calculations were selected to be close to
those of typical engineering polymers y = 60 MPa, E = 3 GPa,
and = 0.3. To assess the effects of yield strain, several simulations were performed with the same values of y and but with a
higher modulus: E = 300 GPa. To ensure numerical stability, the
hardening rate subsequent to yielding was taken to be 3 MPa finite but small. Surface sliding was allowed to occur in accordance with Coulombs law, with friction coefficients = 0, 0.125,
or 0.25. The bottom surface of the specimen was fixed while
symmetry boundary conditions were applied to its sides.
The calculations were performed in two steps, consistent with
those described in Sec. 2. That is, a normal load was applied to the
indenter, up to peak values in the range FN / R2y 1 and peak
normal displacements u0 / R 0.2, and the indenter then displaced
laterally up to a displacement of w / R 3.

3.2 Indentation. An initial assessment of the numerical results was made by comparing the indentation response with existing analytical and experimental results. To facilitate the comparisons, the forces and displacements have been normalized by their
corresponding values at the onset of yield, Fy and uy, given by
1,20
Fy = 21.2

R23y
E2

and
Journal of Applied Mechanics

uy = 6.3

R2y
E2

where E is the plane strain modulus.

Two limiting behavioral domains exist. When F / Fy is not much
greater than unity, the spatial extent of plasticity and the magnitude of the plastic strains are small and hence the indentation
response is given to a good approximation by the elastic Hertzian solution 1,20

F
u
=
Fy
uy

3/2

At the other limit, where F / Fy 1, the force-displacement response asymptotically approaches that for a rigid, perfectly plastic
material, given by 1,20

u
F
= 5.5
Fy
uy

Comparisons of the numerical results and the analytical solutions

are presented in Fig. 4. Also shown are experimental results for
steel from a previous study as well as those for polymethylmethacrylate PMMA from the present study, described below.
Good agreement is obtained over the entire loading range. Additionally, friction has a minimal effect over the range of values
examined here, consistent with previous numerical investigations
19,21.
Parenthetically, the indentation response over the entire loading
range can be adequately described by a simple formula that combines the results in Eqs. 8 and 9. Here the total displacement at
a prescribed force is taken as the sum of those for purely elastic
and purely plastic indentations, namely,
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Fig. 4 Indentation of elastic-plastic materials with a rigid

spherical indenter. Analytical solutions: Eq. 8 for elastic contact, Eq. 9 for plastic contact, and Eq. 10 for elastic/plastic
contact. Data for steel adapted from Johnson 20. Finite element results and experimental measurements on PMMA are
from the present study.

u
F
=
uy
Fy

2/3

+ 0.18

F
Fy

10

This relation reduces to that in Eq. 8 as F / Fy 0 and that in Eq.

9 when F / Fy 1. Upon comparison with the numerical results
Fig. 4, it appears to be reasonably accurate over the intermediate
force range as well.

3.3 Scratching. Representative results from the scratch simulations are presented in Fig. 5. For normal forces above that
needed to initiate yield, both the normal displacement u / R and the
scratch force FL / FN initially increase slightly with w / R a consequence of the loss of contact between the indenter and the material in the scratch wake, reach a peak, and then decrease and
saturate at constant values, independent of scratch displacement.
One manifestation of the steady state is the development of a
uniform plastic strain field that translates with the indenter tip
during sliding, as illustrated in Fig. 6. An additional notable result
is that, for the case where = 0, the scratch depth at steady state is
essentially identical to the initial indentation depth following application of the normal force, consistent with the underlying assumption of the model in Sec. 2. For nonzero values of , the
steady-state scratch depth falls somewhat below the indentation
depth Fig. 5d.
Based on dimensional analysis, the critical scratch displacement, wc / R, needed to achieve steady state is expected to scale
with the indent size, a / R. Recognizing that, for small indents,
a / R u / R, it follows that the corresponding normal displacement uc / R wc / R2. An inspection of the numerical results reveals that the onset of steady state can be adequately described by
uc / R 0.1wc / R2 Fig. 5b.
The effects of the normal force and the friction coefficient on
the scratch force are summarized in Fig. 7. When plotted as
FL / FN versus FN / R2y, the results are linear for a fixed value of
, consistent with Eq. 4. Moreover, upon extrapolation to
FN / R2y = 0 where the material response is purely elastic,
FL / FN , as required. However, in apparent contradiction to
Eq. 4, the slopes of the lines in Fig. 7 are not constant but rather
exhibit a weak nearly linear dependence on , characterized by

Fig. 5 Results of finite element calculations, showing the effects of normal force and friction
coefficient on scratch force and scratch depth. The open circles in b denote the approximate
points at which steady state is attained.

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Fig. 8 Indentation hardness of PMMA, measured over a wide

force range using both spheroconical and cube-corner
indenters

Fig. 6 Development of plastic strain beneath the indenter during a typical scratch simulation for scratch displacements,
w / R, of a 0, b 0.25, and c 2.5 for FN / R2y1/2 = 0.76,
= 0.125

k0 = k11 + k2

11

where k1 = 0.184 and k2 = 1.75. This result is depicted by the solid

lines in Figs. 1 and 7. For friction coefficients 0 0.25, k0
falls in the rather narrow range 0.180.26. Furthermore, these
values are considerably higher than the analytical prediction k0
0.05, consistent with the lower-bound nature of the model.
The effects of the elastic modulus appear to be small. For the
case where = 0, the scratch forces increase by only about 10% as
E is increased by two orders of magnitude from 3 GPa to
300 GPa.

Fig. 7 Effects of normal force and friction coefficient on

scratch force. The solid lines calculated using the formula
shown with k1 = 0.184 and k2 = 1.75. Filled symbols: E = 3 GPa.
Open symbols: E = 300 GPa.

Journal of Applied Mechanics

Experimental Measurements

4.1 Materials and Test Methods. Scratch tests were performed on two material standards commonly used for indenter
calibration: PMMA and a 99.999% pure 100 Al crystal. Scratching was performed using a 60 deg conical diamond indenter with
a 1 m tip radius. The test protocol consisted of i applying a
normal load in the range 0.07 1.0 mN for reasons described below over a period of 5 s, ii holding at the peak load for 5 s, iii
displacing the indenter tip laterally over a distance of 10 m at a
rate of 0.33 m / s, and iv holding for an additional 5 s before
unloading. Material response was characterized by the normalized
scratch force, FL / FN, and the scratch depth, u / R. Remnant
scratches were imaged by scanning probe microscopy SPM.
The normal forces used for the preceding scratch tests were
selected on the basis of two criteria: i that deformation be well
into the plastic domain, i.e., F / Fy 1, and ii that the scratch
depth remain below R, to prevent contact of the conical surface of
the indenter with the test sample. To this end, preliminary indentation tests were performed using a cube-corner tip to ascertain
hardness and modulus. Combining these property values with Eq.
6 and taking the lower limit on the allowable force to be 10Fy,
the first criterion can be expressed as

FN/R2y 15y

12

where y = y / E. Yield strains obtained from the cube-corner indentations are y = 0.02 and 0.002 for PMMA and Al, respectively,
and the corresponding critical forces FN / R2y 0.3 and 0.03. A
further assessment was made by a series of tests with the spheroconical indenter over a wide force range, to confirm that the deformation was indeed well into the plastic domain, as manifested
in a constant value of hardness independent of peak force. Indentation results of this type are plotted on Fig. 8. The maximum
allowable normal force to satisfy the second criterion was estimated from the measured hardness and modulus coupled with the
result in Eq. 12 and the condition u / R 1. The key property
values are summarized in Table 1.
The true elastic friction coefficient was measured by scratch
tests performed using an indenter with a 50 m radius tip.
Strictly, the forces for such tests should remain below that for
yield, i.e., FN / R2y 5y 0.1 for PMMA and 0.01 for Al.
However, as demonstrated below, this criterion is overly stringent,
since FL / FN remains essentially unchanged to significantly higher
force levels.
4.2 Scratch Measurements. Typical scratch measurements
are presented in Fig. 9. For PMMA, the results closely resemble
those obtained from the finite element analysis. Notably, both
FL / FN and u / R initially increase with w / R, reach a peak, and then
fall back to steady-state values. The predicted onset of steady
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Table 1 Summary of indentation properties

Hardness, H MPa
Modulus, E GPa
Yield stress, y MPaa
Yield force, Fy Nb
Yield displacement, uy nmb
a

PMMA

Al

320 10
5.0 0.1
105 4
1.0 0.1
2.8 0.3

390 20
73 7
131 6
0.009 0.003
0.020 0.006

Taken to be H / 3.
Corresponds to R = 1 m.

state, given by uc / R 0.1wc / R2, agrees well with the measurements. Once at steady state, FL / FN and u / R exhibit minimal fluctuations. Although similar features are obtained with the Al
sample, the reductions in FL / FN and u / R from their peaks to their
steady-state values are considerably greater. Furthermore, both
FL / FN and u / R exhibit periodic fluctuations with w / R, with
wavelengths that increase with FN.
The differences in steady-state response of the two materials
appear to correlate with the scratch shapes, ascertained from SPM
images Fig. 10. In PMMA, the scratches are remarkably uniform
along their length, consistent with the constancy of FL / FN and
u / R. In contrast, in Al, the scratches exhibit scalloped edges, with
characteristic wavelengths that mimic the oscillations in FL / FN
and u / R. It is surmised that this behavior is due to a stick-slip
phenomenon.
Scratch force measurements from about 100 tests with the
1 m radius indenter are summarized in Fig. 11a. When plotted
as FL / FN versus FN / R2y assuming y = H / 3, the results are
linear for both materials and exhibit similar slopes: k0 = 0.17 and
0.26 for PMMA and Al, respectively. These values are in reasonable agreement with those obtained from the finite element calculations: 0.18 k0 0.26 for 0 0.25. The results of scratch
tests performed with the 50 m radius tip are plotted on Fig.
11b. The apparent friction coefficients obtained from the latter
tests initially decrease with increasing normal force likely due to
fine-scale surface roughness 1 but then reach plateau levels and
remain constant with further increases in force. For PMMA, yielding initiates at FN / R2y 0.09somewhat above the values in

Fig. 10 SPM images of scratches in PMMA top and Al bottom at various levels of normal force

Fig. 11band thus the plateau value, FL / FN = 0.27 0.02, is

deemed to be the intrinsic friction coefficient. For Al, yielding is
predicted to occur at a lower force, FN / R2y 0.01, near the
transition. Although the plateau is seemingly in the postyielding
domain, the effect of plasticity via Eq. 4, plotted as a dashed
line in Fig. 11b is negligible over the force range of interest. As
a result, the average plateau value, FL / FN = 0.20 0.01, is taken as
the friction coefficient for this system. Both friction coefficients
obtained in this manner are virtually identical to those inferred
from extrapolations of the data in Fig. 11a to FN / R2y = 0.

Concluding Remarks

A mechanistic framework for interpreting scratch tests on plastically deformable materials has been presented. Three behavioral

Fig. 9 Experimental measurements of scratch force and normal displacement for a and b
PMMA and c and d Al. The open circles in b and d denote approximate points at which
steady state is attained.

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Strictly, the present numerical results are applicable to materials

that exhibit time-independent, essentially perfectly plastic behavior subsequent to yielding. The effects of viscoplasticity pertinent
to polymers such as PMMA and strain hardening intrinsic to
pure Al have yet to be probed. Such effects may account for the
slight differences in values of k0 obtained for the two materials as
well as discrepancies between the experimental values and those
from the finite element calculations.

Acknowledgment
The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from the
National Institute of Health NIHR01DE014672.

References

Fig. 11 Summary of scratch force measurements. Tests performed with a 1 m and b 50 m tip radius indenters. The
error bars represent standard deviations. The values of FL / FN
at FN / R2y = 0 in a were obtained from the plateau values in
b. The dashed line in b represents the predicted dependence on FN / R2y through Eqs. 4 and 11 for = 0.2.

domains have been identified. For smooth surfaces, the scratch

force FL / FN is constant when the normal force is below that
needed to initiate yield FN / R2y 5y and exhibits a linear
dependence on FN / R2y in the high force domain FN / R2y
15y. Within the transition 5y FN / R2y 15y, the effects of plasticity are small and, thus, to a good approximation,
FL / FN .
Although not explicitly addressed in this study, a fourth domain
may arise at low force levels. For most real surfaces ones that are
not atomically smooth, contact initially occurs at discrete asperities 1. If the number density of asperities per unit nominal
contact area remains constant and the asperities deform elastically, the true contact area would scale as At a2 F2/3
N . Assuming,
at the simplest level, that the lateral force needed for sliding is
proportional to At, it follows that the friction coefficient should
scale as FL / FN F1/3
N . This prediction is qualitatively consistent with the reduction in friction coefficient with increasing FN
for both PMMA and Al at the lowest force levels.

Journal of Applied Mechanics

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