Today the scratch test is an important tool, widely used for the development of some industrial sectors (anti-scratch coating, glass industries, automobile industries,...). Surface mechanics uses this process to characterise the local and interfacial behaviour of material (wear, friction and adherence). In this work, an aluminium alloy, used for the transportation of a granular material, is studied. A comparison of experimental, numerical and analytical results is discussed. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V All rights reserved.