The effect of surface roughness on the adhesion of elastic plates with application to biological systems

We study the influence of surface roughness on the adhesion of elastic plates. Most real surfaces have roughness on many different length scales, and this fact is taken into account in our analysis. We consider in detail the case when the surface roughness can be described as a self-affine fractal, and study the plate-substrate pull-off force as a function of the surface roughness. Based on the theoretical results we discuss adhesion in biological systems, focusing on the adhesive pads of lizards. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.