A Model for the Calculation of Mechanical Properties of Hydroxyapatite Coatings on Ti6Al4V Substrate Using Finite Element Methods

The scope of this study is to find out yield curve on the coating-substrate system of hydroxyapatite (HA) by finite element modeling. With this regard, Hydroxyapatite (HA) coatings were successfully formed on Ti6Al4V substrates by using biomimetic technique. Experimental indentation tests were conducted on Dynamic Ultra-micro Hardness test machine. In finite element modeling (FEM), mechanical properties of coatings were determined by using ABAQUS software package. This numerical study was carried out using an axisymmetric FEM model. To calculate the mechanical properties of coating, the resulting load–unload test data of the samples obtained from the experimental indentation tests were analyzed and curvefitted in Kick’s and Meyer’s law for the loading and the unloading part of the loadunload curve respectively. Then, a set of analytical functions that take the pile-up and sink-in effects into account during instrumented sharp indentation were solved using numerical methods These analytical functions were defined within an identified representative plastic strain, ε_r, for the Vickers indenter geometry as a strain level that allows for the description of the indentation loading response independent of strain hardening exponent, n.