The objective of this work is to understand the effect of interface roughness on the strain energy release rate and surface cracking behavior in air plasma sprayed thermal barrier coating system. This is achieved by a parameter investigation of the interfacial shapes, in which the extended finite element method (XFEM) and periodic boundary condition are used. Predictions for the stress field and driving force of multiple surface cracks in the film/substrate system are presented. It is seen that the interface roughness has significant effects on the strain energy release rate, the interfacial stress distribution, and the crack propagation patterns. One can see the completely different distributions of stress and strain energy release rate in the regions of convex and concave asperities of the substrate. Variation of the interface asperity is responsible for the oscillatory characteristics of strain energy release rate, which can cause the local arrest of surface cracks. It is concluded that artificially created rough interface can enhance the durability of film/substrate system with multiple cracks. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.