A simplified analysis on buckling of stressed and pressurized thin films on substrates

This paper is concerned with effect of mismatched pressure on buckling of stressed thin films on a semi-infinite rigid substrate. Analytical approximate solutions are established in explicit form by using total potential energy of the system and the Rayleigh–Ritz’s method, and their stabilities have also been determined. The dependences of the critical stress and film-center deflection on the mismatched pressure have been formulated. Results are compared with exact or numerical shooting solutions, and excellent agreements are observed for a large range of film-center deflection. These expressions are brief and can easily be used to derive the effects of various parameters on mechanical behavior of films.