Stress-function variational approach to the interfacial stresses and progressive cracking in surface coatings.

Highlights: [•] Formulate a semi-analytic method for determining interfacial stresses of hard coatings. [•] Investigate the dependency of interfacial stresses upon structural and material parameters. [•] Determine the spacing of progressive cracking in hard coatings based on an energy criterion with refined stress field. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]