Spallation of thin elastic coatings from elastic substrates by laser induced pressure pulses

The laser pulse induced spallation technique has been used in recent years to successfully measure the tensile strength of interfaces between coatings of micron thickness and substrates in nondispersive and nondissipative bimaterial systems of interest in composites with strong but brittle components. In previously reported measurements a one-dimensional wave propagation solution was used to evaluate the measurements. In the present article the results of a three-dimensional analytic solution are presented, which demonstrate the range of validity of a one-dimensional analysis, that remains convenient for the evaluation of experimental results. The present development demonstrates that all the interface strength measurements reported earlier by V. Gupta et al. [J. Mech. Phys. Solids 40, 141 (1992)], obtained by the previous one-dimensional analysis remain unaffected. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.