Microindentation on the porous copper surface modulations

This study aimed to investigate the mechanical properties of a surface modulation which was realized through compaction, and then sintering of copper powders. To this goal, Berkovich type of indenter and depth-sensing indentation technique were used in microindentation to measure the hardness and modulus of elasticity values at different features of compact. Indentations were performed with a peak force of 50 mN. Hardness values were obtained in 0.88-1.12 GPa range while the modulus of elasticity was recorded in the 70-111 GPa interval. Even though both modulus of elasticity and hardness values were noted to be different for copper powders and substrate, one-way ANOVA analyses showed that the differences in both modulus of elasticity and hardness values are insignificant. FE modeling of microindentation was also performed and validated. It was shown that the force-displacement values obtained from FE analyses are quite well in agreement with the experimental data.