Deposition processes control the properties of thin films; they can also introduce high residual stresses, which can be relieved by delamination and fracture. Tungsten films with high 1–2 GPa compressive residual stresses were sputter deposited on top of thin (below 100 nm) copper and diamond-like carbon (DLC) films. Highly stressed films store large amounts of strain energy. When the strain en...

Beam theory analysis was applied to predict delamination growth in DCB specimens reinforced in the thickness direction with pultruded pins, known as Z-fibers. The specimen arms were modeled as cantilever beams supported by discrete springs, which were included to represent the pins. A bi-linear, irreversible damage law was used to represent Z-fiber damage, the parameters of which were obtained ...

Strength and toughness are a couple of paradox as similar as strength-ductility trade-off in homogenous materials, body-centered-cubic steels in particular. Here we report a simple way to get ultrahigh toughness without sacrificing strength. By simple alloying design and hot rolling the 5Mn3Al steels in ferrite/austenite dual phase temperature region, we obtain a series of ferrite/martensite la...

The problem of improving the delamination resistance and toughness of laminate fiberreinforced composites especially for the drop-off structure is receiving considerable attention with the increasing need and application in industries. A hot melt-bonding process is developed to bond glass fabric laminates and the thermoplastic (TP) polysulfone (PSU) interleaf prior to the vacuum assisted resin ...

The mixed-mode bending (MMB) test for delamination toughness was first introduced in 1988. This simple test is a combination of the standard Mode I (opening) test and a Mode II (sliding) test. This MMB test has become widely used in the United States and around the world for mixed-mode toughness measurements. Because of the widespread use of this test method, it is being considered for standard...

This paper describes acoustic emission (AE) measurement at elevated temperature by laser techniques. AE signals originated from microfracture of Al2O3/SUS304 plasma sprayed coatings were detected using a laser interferometer during thermal cycling. The radii of microcracks were evaluated by the inverse analysis of AE signals. Microcrack radii were also studied by the numerical analysis based on...

Failures in composite materials occur mainly due to interlaminar fracture, also called delamination, between laminates. This indicates that characterizing interlaminar fracture toughness is the most effective factor in the fracture of composite materials. This study reports investigation on mixed-mode interlaminar fracture behaviour in woven carbon fibre/polyetherimide (CF/PEI) thermoplastic co...

We consider the buckle-driven delamination of compressed thin lms. For a wide class of patterns of delamination, it is shown that the loading on the delamination front progressively goes from mode I to mode II during growth of the blister. As a result, the mode dependence of the lm/substrate interface excludes widespread delamination. This explains the observations of blisters of nite extent, w...