Effect of surface tension on the behavior of adhesive contact based on Maugis‒Dugdale model

Abstract

This present study reconsiders the effect of surface tension on the behavior of adhesive contact between a rigid sphere and an elastic half-plane, in which the adhesive interactions are supposed to follow the Dugdale laws. The adhesive contact issue is transformed into two inter coupled non-linear integral equations which are governed by two parameters: λ (Maugis adhesion parameter) and S (elastocapillary number). By means of iteration method, numeric results are obtained. Analogous to the traditional Maugis-Dugdale (M-D) model, the results provide transition of the pull-off force between JKR and DMT type contact models through the Maugis adhesion parameter λ with a fixed parameter S. On the other hand, with a fixed adhesion parameter λ, we also present the transitions of the pull-off force between four extreme models, named M-D, JKR, Bradley models and Young–Dupre equation, through adjustment of the parameter S. Finally, we find the uniformity and discontinuity of the pressure distribution are affected by the combination of three factors: applied load P, adhesion parameter λ and elastocapillary number S.