We have recently proposed an efficient computation method for the frictionless linear elastic axisymmetric contact of coated bodies [A. Perriot and E. Barthel, J. Mat. Res. 19 (2004) 600]. Here we give a brief description of the approach. We also discuss implications of the results for the instrumented indentation data analysis of coated materials. Emphasis is laid on incompressible or nearly incompressible materials (Poisson ratio $ u>0.4$): we show that the contact stiffness rises much more steeply with contact radius than for more compressible materials and significant elastic pile-up is evidenced. In addition the dependence of the penetration upon contact radius increasingly deviates from the homogeneous reference case when the Poisson ratio increases. As a result, this algorithm may be helpful in instrumented indentation data analysis on soft and nearly incompressible layers.
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