Determining buckling strain energy release rate through indentation-induced delamination

An oscillating indentation load was applied to delaminate a diamond-like-carbon film from a silicon substrate. After delamination occurred, a two-stage behavior was exhibited in the load-depth results; then, a three-stage behavior was exhibited after buckling occurred due to a long enough delamination length. After removing the indentation load, the debonding film was single-buckled and suspended over the substrate; thus, the delamination length was obtained via the residual profile. Through analysis of the deflection of the buckled film, the buckling strain energy release rate was evaluated.