Fracture Criteria on Peeling

The mechanical conditions for the initiation and the propagation of fracture are considered in the case of trousers type of a specimen consisting of two flexible canvas bonded with rubbery adhesive. To reduce the difficulties in mathematical analysis a mechanical model for peeling is adopted. It was found that the condition for the initiation of peeling obeys the maximum stress criterion and that for the propagation of steady peeling obeys the minimum free energy criterion in thermodynamics. Here discussed are limits of validity of thermodynamics for the problem of fracture.