Some applications and mechanics for the cracking of stiff films supported on compliant substrates

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• Professor Michael Thouless (University of Michigan)
• Friday 13 May 2011, 14:30-15:30
• Department of Engineering - LR6.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Rebecca Loving.

A series of parallel cracks can propagate across a stiff film supported on a compliant substrate when it is subjected to a tensile strain. When films are formed by oxygen plasma or by deposition of metals on an elastomeric substrate such as PDMS , the crack patterns can form the basis of devices such as adjustable channels that can be used for biological or nano-technological applications. In addition, the fracture patterns exhibit some features that have not been previously addressed in analyses of thin-film cracking. In particular, the cracks channel through both the film and the substrate, with the depth of the cracks being up to two orders of magnitude larger than the thickness of the film. A general mechanics analysis for this problem examines how the properties of the film and compliant substrate control these crack patterns.

This talk is part of the Engineering - Mechanics Colloquia Research Seminars series.

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