Effect of the Residual Stress on Soft Sample Nanoindentation

Nanoindentation has recently emerged as a powerful tool for measuring nano- and microscale mechanical properties in tissues and other biomaterials. This technique has been used to measure the mechanical properties of microstructural features in cells, biopolymer networks and complex biomaterials. Despite the wide use of the nanoindentation the residual stress effect in the determination of soft samples elastic properties is still poorly explored. By using parametric finite element analysis and atomic force spectroscopy, we determined the relationships between residual stress and indenter geometry and how it can affect the structural response of polymeric spherical shells flattened on a hard surface.