Effect of shear stress on adhesive contact with a generalized Maugis-Dugdale cohesive zone model

The interplay between interfacial shear stress and adhesion has been an active but controversial subject of adhesive contact mechanics, which is currently plagued by diverse, sometimes contradicting, predictions. Recently, McMeeking et al. showed that a reversible interface slip parameter plays an essential role in determining how interfacial shear stress affects adhesion for a Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) contact interface. In this paper, adhesive contact between a rigid spherical indenter and an elastic half-space is studied with a generalized Maugis-Dugdale (M-D) model, where a constant frictional shear stress presents in the intimate contact area while a constant adhesive stress exists in a cohesive zone near the contact edge. The model solution predicts that the contact behavior is governed by a non-dimensional reversible shear index alpha tau(2) as well as the Maugis parameter lambda. More specifically, it is found that the impact of interfacial shear stress on adhesion is most significant when the model approaches the JKR limit, and it gets less pronounced in the transitional regime and eventually becomes negligible in the DerjaguinMulller-Toporov (DMT) limit. Such behavior is in distinct contrast to Johnson's phenomenological solution. Finally, the proposed model is experimentally validated by adhesion tests on contact interfaces with varying Maugis parameters, where the reversible slip factor is experimentally extracted for the first time.

Automated summary

The study highlights the varying impact of interfacial shear stress on adhesion under different contact conditions, with the most significant effect seen when the model approaches the JKR limit and diminishing in the transitional regime to become negligible in the DMT limit. This behavior contrasts with Johnson's phenomenological solution and underscores the importance of considering the reversible interface slip parameter in adhesive contact mechanics.