Buckling Delamination

For some multilayer systems that experience compression, buckling of the film in an initially debonded region may release energy that becomes available to drive the interface crack and increase the size of the debonded region. This phenomenon, called buckling delamination, occurs in structural composites where a compressed surface layer has debonded from its adjacent layers and buckles when the applied compression is sufficiently large. This surface layer may then delaminate if the interface toughness is not large enough to keep the interface crack from propagating. Buckling delamination is one of the most widely observed failure mechanisms in thin films and coatings on substrates when the stress is compressive. Buckling delamination involves the simultaneous interaction of buckling and interface cracking.