Contact damage of hard and brittle thin films on ductile metallic substrates: An analysis of diamond-like carbon on titanium substrates

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Date
2015-01-27Type
- Journal Article
Citations
Cited 11 times in
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Abstract
Friction and wear minimizing coatings are crucial for applications in combustion engines and medical implants. Their performance is typically limited by mechanical failure especially due to local overload. In this work, the contact damage creation, evolution, and final morphology of hydrogenated diamond-like carbon (DLC)-coated titanium (Ti) substrates are investigated. The influence of the DLC film thickness and the elastic–plastic deformation of the Ti on the contact damage are studied by microindentation and static finite-element analysis. Film thickness, indenter radius, and applied load as well as the elastic–plastic deformation of the Ti are shown to significantly affect contact damage. A failure plot is presented with the location of first failure in the DLC and compared to the experimental observation. In addition, a case study with variable fracture toughness of the DLC and its influence on the failure plot is shown. The stress distribution in the DLC follows a transition from a membrane-like to a plate-like deformation behavior upon increasing the DLC film thickness. Thin DLC films reveal increased cracking in the inner zone of the indent, while thicker DLC films reveal pronounced edge cracking. These edge cracks were correlated to pop-ins in force–displacement curves upon microindentation. Finally, a film thickness optimization process is presented for hard and brittle films on soft and ductile metallic substrates. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000098105Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Journal of Materials ScienceVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
SpringerOrganisational unit
03692 - Spolenak, Ralph / Spolenak, Ralph
Notes
It was possible to publish this article open access thanks to a Swiss National Licence with the publisher.More
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Citations
Cited 11 times in
Web of Science
Cited null times in
Scopus
ETH Bibliography
yes
Altmetrics