Delamination of Compressed Thin Films

In this article, we specifically concern ourselves with the buckling-driven delamination mechanism, whereby a portion of the film buckles away from the substrate, thereby forming a blister (also termed buckle or wrinkle). Blisters may grow by interfacial fracture, a process which, under the appropriate conditions, may result in the catastrophic failure of the component. Blisters are often observed to adopt convoluted-even bizarre shapes and to fold into intricate patterns. A principal objective of this article is to review some recent developments based on the use of direct methods of the calculus of variations which have proven useful for understanding the mechanics of folding of thin films (Ortiz and Gioia, 1994). These developments are reviewed in Section III, which is extracted from the original publication. The remaining sections are devoted to the application of these principles to the problem of predicting the shape of thin-film blisters.