Estimation of Thermal Stresses Induced in Polymeric Thin Film Using Boundary Element Methods

The residual thermal stresses at the interface corner between the elastic substrate and the viscoelastic thin film due to cooling from cure temperature down to room temperature have been studied. The polymeric thin film was assumed to be thermorheologically simple. The boundary element method was employed to investigate the nature of stresses on the whole interface. Numerical results show that very large stress gradients are present at the interface comer and such stress singularity might lead to edge cracks or delamination.