A practical approach for the separation of interfacial toughness and structural plasticity in a delamination growth experiment

Interfacial delamination is a key reliability challenge in composites and micro-electronic systems due to (high density) integration of dissimilar materials. Predictive finite element models require the input of interface properties, often determined with an interface delamination growth experiment with (nearly) constant process zone, relying on the assumption of no permanent deformation in the sample structure layers. However, much evidence in the literature exists that plasticity often does occur in the sample structure during delamination experiments, which should be adequately dealt with to obtain the real interface fracture toughness that is independent of the thickness of the two sample arms. This paper presents a practical approach for the separation of interfacial toughness and structural plasticity in a delamination growth experiment on a double-cantilever beam specimen involving only small-scale plasticity at the interface. The procedure does not require knowledge of the constitutive behavior of the adherent layers. It only deals with the separation of structural plasticity in the adherents, whereas smallscale plasticity in connection with ductile interface fracture is lumped into the interface fracture toughness. The proposed approach was numerically verified for one set of parameters. Experimental assessment of the approach on industrially-relevant copper lead frame–molding compound epoxy interface structures showed a correction of the interface fracture toughness of more than a factor of two, demonstrating the potentially significant errors induced by plastic deformation of the sample structure during delamination experiments.