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Interfacial delamination cracking shapes and stress states during wedge indentation in a soft-film-on-hard-substrate system—Computational simulation and experimental studies

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Abstract

The shapes of the interfacial delamination crack and stress states during wedge indentation in a soft-film-on-hard-substrate system were investigated systematically using the three-dimensional (3D) finite element simulation and wedge indentation experiment. In the simulation, a traction–separation law was used to characterize the failure behaviors of the interface. The effects of the wedge indenter tip length and the film thickness on the onset and growth of interfacial delamination were analyzed. It was shown that a two-dimensional (2D) to 3D transition of stress states occurred depending on the ratio of indenter length to film thickness. Furthermore, the interfacial delamination process by wedge indentation was conducted experimentally, and comparisons between the computational and experimental results yielded quantitative good agreement. Finally, a straightforward criterion based on the curvature of the delamination crack front was proposed to indicate the transition of stress states during the interfacial delamination. A guideline was therefore proposed to classify the 2D and 3D stress states for extracting the interface adhesion properties.

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Acknowledgments

This work is supported by National University of Singapore under Academic Research Funds (R265-000-190-112 and R265-000-190-133) and National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50805079).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576

    Lei Chen, Kong Boon Yeap, Kai Yang Zeng & Chong Min She

  2. Center for Advanced Computations in Engineering Science (ACES), Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 117576

    Lei Chen

  3. Academy of Frontier Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China

    Gui Rong Liu

  4. Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA), Singapore, 117576

    Gui Rong Liu

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  1. Lei Chen
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  2. Kong Boon Yeap
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Correspondence to Kai Yang Zeng.

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Chen, L., Yeap, K.B., Zeng, K.Y. et al. Interfacial delamination cracking shapes and stress states during wedge indentation in a soft-film-on-hard-substrate system—Computational simulation and experimental studies. Journal of Materials Research 26, 2511–2523 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1557/jmr.2011.175

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