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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 September 2012
During the peel of a ductile material from a rigid substrate, a number of instabilities can arise in the shape and motion of the peel front. For instance, void formation, viscous fingering, and fibril formation and bifurcation can modulate the local rate of detachment between the two materials. These fluctuations affect the rate of energy dissipation and depend directly on the micromechanics of the detachment zone. Exploiting the consequences of contact charging between dissimilar materials, we have developed sensitive methods for detecting fluctuations during interfacial failure. We have also developed a sensitive probe of ductile deformation in reactive metals and use these measurements to probe energy dissipation during interfacial failure. We present examples of chaotic behavior and discuss the relation between these results with our current understanding of energy dissipation during interfacial crack growth.