Pull-Off Strength and Mechanical Energy Dissipation in Adhesive Contacts: Experiments and Simulations

This study contributes to the understanding of the adhesive properties in normal contacts, providing valuable information on the influence of various factors on adhesive strength and energy dissipation. The adhesive normal contact between a steel spherical indenter and a soft sheet of elastomer is studied experimentally. The dependencies of contact strength and mechanical energy dissipation in the complete indentation–detachment cycle on the indentation depth, the velocity of the indenter, its radius, thickness, and elastic modulus of the elastomer, the specific work of adhesion, as well as the roughness of the indenter surface, were analyzed. Experimental results are compared with simulations using the boundary element method (BEM), and the reasons leading to discrepancies between experiments and simulations are analyzed. It is shown that over a wide range of experimental parameters, the rate of mechanical energy dissipation can be estimated with sufficient accuracy using a simple empirical relation.