The deformation modes of copper alloys under indenter

The instrumented indentation test has been widely used and studied because of the ease it provides for estimating the mechanical properties of materials from the force-displacement curve for miniature material volumes. During an indentation test, the material tends to deform under the indenter in two ways; either a sink-in or pile-up according to its mechanical behavior. The intention of this paper is to describe the procedures for this indentation technique to determine the local properties of these nanoscale copper alloys. And to estimate their variation of the deformation energy according to the transition criterion of the deformation mode to affirm the modal coexistence