Determination of the fatigue behaviour of thin hard coatings using the impact test and a FEM simulation

The impact test, in combination with a finite element method (FEM) simulation, is used to determine stress values that characterise the fatigue behaviour of thin hard coatings, such as TiAlN, TiAlCN, CrN, MoN, etc. The successive impacts of a cemented carbide ball onto a coated probe induce high contact loads, which can vary in amplitude and cause plastic deformation in the substrate. In the present paper FEM calculations are used in order to determine the critical stress values, which lead to coating fatigue failure. The parametric FEM simulation developed considers elastic behaviour for the coating and elastic plastic behaviour for the substrate. The results of the FEM calculations are correlated to experimental data, as well as to SEM observations of the imprints and to microspectrum analyses within the contact region. Herewith, critical values for various stress components, which are responsible for distinctive fatigue failure modes of the coating-substrate compounds can be obtained.