THEORY OF CHAIN PULL-OUT AND STABILITY OF WEAK POLYMER INTERFACES .2.

In this paper, we study the relationship between crack nucleation and failure of an interface reinforced by chains and the results of a line ar stability analysis presented in part 1 of this study (preceding pap er in this issue). We develop a numerical procedure to simulate the de formation and failure of such an interface. We demonstrate that instab ilities lead to spatial localization of the deformation which determin es the failure mode of the interface. The dependence of the failure mo des on the material parameters of the system, such as the number of en tanglements of the pull-out chains, the level of applied load, and the amplitude of the initial perturbation, is studied.