Interfacial stress analysis for multi-coating systems using an advanced boundary element method

This paper focuses on the interfacial stress analysis for multi-coating systems using an advanced boundary element method (BEM) developed earlier in [Luo JF, Liu YJ, Berger EJ (1998) Analysis of two-dimensional thin structures (from micro- to nano-scales) using the boundary dement method. Comput. Mech. 22(5):404-412]. The advanced BER I with thin-body capabilities for two-dimensional linear elasticity is extended to general multi-domain problems and validated by the analytical solution of a special multi-coating problem. Detailed interfacial stress analysis for a two-layer coating system under uniform load distribution is investigated, through which the influence of coating thickness and material of the multi-coating system can be studied. The developed multi-coating analysis capability using the BEM provides not only a robust numerical tool for interfacial stress analysis of multi-coating systems with arbitrary coating thickness and number of coatings, but also the basis for future work concerning interface cracks, thermal effects and contact mechanics.