Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 February 2011
The strain energy release rates for the converging decohesion crack in a multilayered film on a substrate have been calculated using the finite element method. The results for the energy release rate as a function of the intrinsic stress, the thickness of the superlayer and the modulus ratio will be presented. A simple functional form for the results will be shown. The effects of plasticity of the thin metal layer on the energy release rate have been examined. The results show that the effect of plastic deformation is not significant for the converging decohesion crack. The effects of the line width have also been addressed. The results show that for two-layer films the energy release rate for steady-state decohesion cracks decreases dramatically as B/h decreases, in the range B/h<40, where B is the line width and h is the thickness of the superlayer. For narrow lines the plane strain solutions overestimate the energy release rate. The numerical results are consistent with the experimental observations on lines with different width.