Analysis of thin film cracking and buckling on compliant substrate by fragmentation test

Application of coating fragmentation test for determination of coating properties is considered. A probabilistic model of coating fragmentation under uniaxial tensile loading is applied for coating and interface property identification of thin brittle coating/polymer substrate system. A finite element model is developed to simulate the process of buckle formation in coating strips during fragmentation test. The measured buckle geometry parameters and buckle density evolution as a function of the applied strain is used to estimate the interface toughness.