Fatigue Crack Propagation Evaluated by Electric Resistance and Ultrasonics in Copper Film Bonded to Base Metal with Resin

As model specimens of surface film-bonded materials, pure copper films with a thickness of 100μm were bonded to the surface of steel base with epoxy resin, where the tensile residual stress was measured by an X-ray on the surface copper film. The distribution of initial electric resistance was measured on both copper film and base specimen by a direct current potential drop technique. As a result, there was a good agreement between the measured and theoretical values. From the fatigue testing results, it was shown that the measured electric resistance increased with the fatigue crack length on the copper film, which was almost equal to the theoretical value calculated for a central slit in a plate with finite width. This was probably because the fatigue crack was opened due to the tensile residual stress on the film even under unloading condition. In addition, the internal crack length during fatigue was examined by ultrasonic testing for the film-bonded specimen. As a result, there was a difference in the fatigue crack length between the surface copper film and the inner base.