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1 s2.0 S0040609001009592 Main
1 s2.0 S0040609001009592 Main
R.M. Souza
a,U
, G.G.W. Mustoe
b
, J.J. Moore
c
a
Surface Phenomena Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Polytechnic School, Uniersity of Sao Paulo, A. Prof. Mello
Moraes 2231, Sao Paulo, SP 05508-900, Brazil
b
Diision of Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
c
( ) Adanced Coatings and Surface Engineering Laboratory ACSEL , Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA
Received 3 May 2000; received in revised form 22 March 2001; accepted 22 March 2001
Abstract
In this work, the mechanical behavior of hard lms on soft substrates was studied based on the nite element analysis of an
indentation with normal forces. As an attempt to reproduce situations found in practice, defects were considered during the
preparation of the nite element mesh, both in the lm and at the interface. A sequence of steps was considered during the
. . loading sequence applied in the models. Initially, the deposition intrinsic and thermal extrinsic stresses were introduced to
account for all residual stresses present in thin lms deposited by processes such as sputtering. Later, a normal load of 50 N was
applied on the pre-stressed system. The effects of a crack that propagated along the lmrsubstrate interface was studied directly,
by calculating the normal and shear stresses that develop at the lm surface and the lmrsubstrate interface, and indirectly, by
looking at the behavior of cracks located at the lm surface and propagating perpendicular to the interface. The results indicated
that the suppression of the constraint imposed by the interface resulted in a decrease in the stresses in the lm. However, the
crack at the interface apparently did not interact with the stresses responsible for the array of circular cracks usually observed at
the contact edge of the indentation of coated systems with soft substrates. 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Adhesion; Stress; Triboblogy
1. Introduction
The deposition of coatings is a widespread tech-
nology for improving the behavior of parts subjected to
wear. These methods are particularly important in the
case of soft substrates, such as aluminum, which are
w x
known for their poor tribological properties 1 .
In recent years, several processes were developed to
deposit thin lms on a substrate, each one associated
with a series of process parameters that can signi-
w x
cantly affect the characteristics of the lm 2 . There-
U
Corresponding author.
.
6c for the variation of the radial stresses along the
r
lm side of the interface; in Fig. 6d for the variation of
.
the axial stresses along the lm side of the inter-
z
.
face and on Fig. 6e for the shear stresses along the
rz
lm side of the interface. The same plots of Fig. 6 are
shown on Fig. 7, but with stresses calculated after the
load was entirely released. On Figs. 6 and 7, the frac-
ture toughness of the lm was 2.5 MPa 6m and all the
.
results were normalized by the contact area a and
os
.
the maximum contact pressure p obtained when a
os
rigid spherical indenter applies a normal load of 50 N
w x
on an elastic aluminum substrate 911 .
5. Discussion
Different phenomena are experimentally observed
during the spherical indentation of coated systems with
soft substrates. Usually, an array of circular cracks is
.
friction coefcient between the indenter and the
lm is low. In cases where is low, there is little
restriction preventing the lm from slipping under the
indenter, which results in biaxial tensile stretching
stresses that overcome the bending contribution.
.
The effects of the unloading process Fig. 7 have
w x
already been presented by Montmitonet et al. 7 and
w x
previously discussed by the authors 10,11 . In those
cases, it was veried that unloading results in an in-
.
crease of and close to the model axis Fig. 7 ,
r