Evaluation of interfacial stress transfer efficiency by coating fragmentation test

Probabilistic model of coating fragmentation under uniaxial tensile loading is developed. Analytical expressions of the crack spacing evolution are obtained for small-strain and large-strain fragmentation regimes. The model is applied for coating and interface property identification of several thin brittle coating/polymer substrate systems. An estimate of the stress transfer length, derived from the fragmentation data, is found to correlate with the interfacial shear strength thus suggesting that both parameters reflect an intrinsic property related to the mechanical efficiency of coating/substrate interface.