Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 111, Issue 9, Pages 3298-3303Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1320846111
Keywords
surface roughness; contact mechanics
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Funding
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research [FA9550-0910232]
- U.S. National Science Foundation [OCI-108849, DMR-1006805, CMMI-0923018]
- Simons Foundation
- European Commission [Marie-Curie IOF 272619]
- Division Of Materials Research
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien [1006805] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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At the molecular scale, there are strong attractive interactions between surfaces, yet few macroscopic surfaces are sticky. Extensive simulations of contact by adhesive surfaces with roughness on nanometer to micrometer scales are used to determine how roughness reduces the area where atoms contact and thus weakens adhesion. The material properties, adhesive strength, and roughness parameters are varied by orders of magnitude. In all cases, the area of atomic contact is initially proportional to the load. The prefactor rises linearly with adhesive strength for weak attractions. Above a threshold adhesive strength, the prefactor changes sign, the surfaces become sticky, and a finite force is required to separate them. A parameter-free analytic theory is presented that describes changes in these numerical results over up to five orders of magnitude in load. It relates the threshold adhesive strength to roughness and material properties, explaining why most macroscopic surfaces do not stick. The numerical results are qualitatively and quantitatively inconsistent with classical theories based on the Greenwood-Williamson approach that neglect the range of adhesion and do not include asperity interactions.
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