In many applications, glass surfaces are exposed to a variety of external aggressive conditions such as corrosion, chemical reactions and mechanical damage. One such mechanical damage process is sand erosion where contact between the impacting particle and the glass surface leads to erosion by chipping. This is the result of elastic-plastic fracture and it involves the intersection of cracks with the surface leading to material removal. The similarities between the surface damage caused by sand erosion and Vickers indentation have motivated us to apply the indentation technique in a contact damage mechanism study. Residual stresses can influence the deformation and fracture processes that occur during indentation in brittle materials. This study describes an analysis of Vickers indentation and the interaction between two adjacent indentations in soda lime silica glass.
