Bi-material assembly subjected to thermal stress: propensity to delamination assessed using interfacial compliance model

It is shown that an engineering stress model suggested about 30 years ago for the approximate evaluation of the interfacial stresses in adhesively bonded or soldered bi-material assemblies experiencing thermal loading and based on the concept of interfacial compliance can be employed also for the assessment of the assembly’s propensity to delamination. The analysis is limited to the shearing mode of failure and to the elastic stresses. A probabilistic extreme value distribution (EVD) approach can be used to consider the random nature of both the actual and the critical stress-energy-release-rates (SERR). The step-wise nature of the typical failure oriented accelerated test (FOAT) loading in the electronics reliability field (such as, e.g., temperature cycling) is addressed. The general concepts are illustrated by numerical examples.