Buckling-driven delamination in layered spherical shells

An analysis of buckling-driven delamination of a layer in a spherical, layered shell has been carried out. The effects of the substrate having a double curvature compared to previous studies of delamination on cylindrical substrates turn out to be non-trivial in the sense that additional to the effect of the shape of the substrate, a new non-dimensional geometrical parameter enters the conditions for steady-state delamination. It is shown that this additional geometrical parameter in most cases of practical relevance has insignificant influence on the fracture mechanical parameters involved for the problem. The consequence is that solutions need to be mapped as a function of one rather than two dimensionless parameters. Furthermore, the shape of the substrate has profound influence especially on initiation of delamination growth.