Development of a novel lateral force-sensing microindentation technique for determination of interfacial bond strength Original Research Article

The interfacial bond strength is a crucial factor determining ultimate mechanical properties and performances of composites, thin films and coatings. Great efforts have been made to develop effective techniques for determination of interfacial bond strength. However, none of existing methods is “ideal” and results obtained using these techniques are generally qualitative. In this paper, a new technique is proposed to determine the interfacial bond strength for composites and coatings. During the test, microindentation was performed near an interface with in situ monitoring changes in lateral force. It was demonstrated that the lateral force (Fx) was very sensitive to interfacial debond. The critical indentation load that corresponds to interfacial debond can be used to quantitatively determine the interfacial bond strength. The method was justified using experimental and computational approaches. As an example, an Al2O3/Al alloy interfacial bond was analyzed.