The spherical indentation test has been successfully applied to inversely derive the tensile properties of small regions in a non-destructive way.Current inverse methods mainly rely on extensive iterative calculations,which yield a considerable computational costs.In this paper,a database method is proposed to determine tensile flow properties from a single indentation force-depth curves to avoid iterative simulations.Firstly,a database that contain numerous indentation force-depth curves is established by inputting varied Ludwic material parameters into the indentation finite elements model.Secondly,for a given experimental indentation curve,a mean square error(MSE)is designated to evaluate the deviation between the experimental curve and each curve in the database.Finally,the true stresses at a series of plastic strain can be acquired by analyzing these deviations.To validate this new method,three different steels,i.e.A508,2.25Cr1 Mo and 316L are selected.Both simulated indentation curves and experimental indentation curves are used as inputs of the database to inversely acquire the flow properties.The result indicates that the pro-posed approach provides impressive accuracy when simulated indentation curves are used,but is less accurate when experimental curves are used.This new method can derive tensile properties in a much higher efficiency compared with traditional inverse method and are therefore more adaptive to engineering application.