The buckling of an elastic layer bonded to an elastic substrate in plane strain

The solution for buckling of a stiff elastic layer bonded to an elastic half-space under a transverse compressive plane strain is presented. The results are compared to an approximate solution that models the layer using beam theory. This comparison shows that the beam theory model is adequate until the buckling strain exceeds three percent, which occurs for modulus ratios less than 100. In these cases the beam theory predicts a larger buckling strain than the exact solution. In all cases the wavelength of the buckled shape is accurately predicted by the beam model. A buckling experiment is described and a discussion ofbuckling-induced delamination is given.