delamination

thumb|Delamination of carbon fiber–reinforced polymer under compression load Delamination is a mode of failure where a material fractures into layers. A variety of materials, including laminate composites and concrete, can fail by delamination. Processing can create layers in materials, such as steel formed by rolling and plastics and metals from 3D printing which can fail from layer separation. Also, surface coatings, such as paints and films, can delaminate from the coated substrate.

In laminated composites, the adhesion between layers often fails first, causing the layers to separate. For example, in fiber-reinforced plastics, sheets of high strength reinforcement (e.g., carbon fiber, fiberglass) are bound together by a much weaker polymer matrix (e.g., epoxy). In particular, loads applied perpendicular to the high strength layers, and shear loads can cause the polymer matrix to fracture or the fiber reinforcement to debond from the polymer.