Evolution and stability of tile detachment – Experiments and modeling

Detachment of bonded tiles undermines the aesthetics, functionality, and safety of innumerable buildings world-wide. The plate-type interfacial debonding mechanisms that are the root cause of tile detachments are difficult to observe and monitor because they are hidden by opaque external layers. This invisibility, together with the brittle nature of tile detachments, raises questions regarding the triggering, the two-dimensional evolution, and the stability features of the interfacial failure. The present study adopts a combined experimental–numerical approach to address these questions. Through the use of transparent tiles, the full process of tile detachments under a concentrated pullout load is novelly captured on video. The experimental force displacement curves reveal that the interfacial mechanism becomes unstable at critical points. Numerical modeling based on an inhouse specially tailored finite element formulation is used to further explore and interpret the experimental findings. Comparisons between the experimental and numerical results show the numerical model's ability to closely follow the debonding evolution and capture the variety of experimentally observed phenomena.