Buckling delamination in compressed multilayers on curved substrates with accompanying ridge cracks

Residually compressed films and coatings are susceptible to buckle delamination. The buckles often have linear or telephone cord morphology. When the films are brittle, such buckles are susceptible to the formation of ridge cracks that extend along their length, terminating close to the propagating front. The ridge-cracked buckles are invariably straight-sided (not telephone cord) and differ in width. Buckle delaminations of this type occur on flat and curved substrates: having greatest technological relevance in the latter. They occur not only in single layer films but also in multilayers, such as thermal barrier systems. Establishing the mechanics of ridge-cracked buckle delaminations for multilayers on curved substrates serves two purposes. (a) It allows the prediction of buckle delamination and spalling for technologically important systems. (b) It provides a test protocol for measuring properties such as the delamination toughness of the interface and the stresses in the layers. Both objectives are addressed in the article: the latter by devising an inverse algorithm. Implementation of the algorithm is demonstrated for diamond-like carbon films on planar glass substrates and a thermal barrier multilayer on a curved superalloy substrate. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.