On adhesion energy estimates derived from the pressurized brittle delamination of a flexible thin film Original Research Article

This paper examines the problem of the development of a circular delamination due to pressurization at the interface of a flexible elastic film bonded to an elastic substrate. The analysis takes into consideration the elastic deformations of the thin film that can include pure flexure, flexure with shear deformations or large deflections and the elasticity of the substrate. The paper presents explicit results that could be used to estimate either the adhesion energy of the interface or the size of a blister created during the pressurization.