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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 March 2011
An elasto-plastic spherical indentation study on materials with a yield strength gradient, like steels which have undergone thermal hardening such as nitriding, is carried out using both experimental and finite element methods. A theory based on the evolution of hardness, is proposed to determine the yield stress and hardness profiles for materials with a decreasing yield stress with depth.
Results for carbo-nitriding steels obtained by the standard Vickers micro hardness technique are compared with those obtained by the proposed method.