Mechanical integrity of thin films

The mechanical integrity of thin films is characterized by the adhesion between solid bodies and membranes. Two methods to evaluate the strain energy release rates of thin film delamination are discussed. This strain energy release rate is useful to the experimentalists in their measurements of adhesion or delamination energy of thin films having wide ranging thickness and stiffness. This thesis is primarily concerned with the pressurized blister test and a novel circular punch loaded technique. The adhesive contact mechanics in these two cases is formulated here. The thesis is categorized into four sections. The first section delineates the background and the literature review of thin film adhesion. The second section highlights a new method in deriving the strain energy release rate, G, in case of a pressurized circular blister. The third section is a study of the delamination of a thin flexible membrane from an axisymmetric flat punch under the presence of surface forces. Here, only the case of a pure stretching membrane is considered for simplicity and thereby, the plate bending is assumed negligible. In both cases zero residual stress is assumed to be present in the thin film. Finally, the fourth section summarizes all the first three sections and suggests some future extensions of the present work narrated in this thesis. --Abstract, page iii