A unified treatment of axisymmetric adhesive contact problems using the harmonic potential function method

A unified treatment of axisymmetric adhesive contact problems is provided using the harmonic potential function method for axisymmetric elasticity problems advanced by Green, Keer, Barber and others. The harmonic function adopted in the current analysis is the one that was introduced by Jin et al. (2008) to solve an external crack problem. It is demonstrated that the harmonic potential function method offers a simpler and more consistent way to treat non-adhesive and adhesive contact problems. By using this method and the principle of superposition, a general solution is derived for the adhesive contact problem involving an axisymmetric rigid punch of arbitrary shape and an adhesive interaction force distribution of any profile. This solution provides analytical expressions for all non-zero displacement and stress components on the contact surface, unlike existing ones. In addition, the newly derived solution is able to link existing solutions/models for axisymmetric non-adhesive and adhesive contact problems and to reveal the connections and differences among these solutions/models individually obtained using different methods at various times. Specifically, it is shown that Sneddon’s solution for the axisymmetric punch problem, Boussinesq’s solution for the flat-ended cylindrical punch problem, the Hertz solution for the spherical punch problem, the JKR model, the DMT model, the M-D model, and the M-D-n model can all be explicitly recovered by the current general solution.     

Mechanics of adhesive contact on a power-law graded elastic half-space

We consider adhesive contact between a rigid sphere of radius R and a graded elastic half-space with Young's modulus varying with depth according to a power law E=E₀(z/c₀)^k (0<k<1) while Poisson's ratio ν remaining a constant. Closed-form analytical solutions are established for the critical force, the critical radius of contact area and the critical interfacial stress at pull-off. We highlight that the pull-off force has a simple solution of P_cr=−(k+3)πRΔγ/2 where Δγ is the work of adhesion and make further discussions with respect to three interesting limits: the classical JKR solution when k=0, the Gibson solid when k→1 and ν=0.5, and the strength limit in which the interfacial stress reaches the theoretical strength of adhesion at pull-off.     

The role of binder mobility in spontaneous adhesive contact and implications for cell adhesion

The standard view of mechanical adhesive contact is as a competition between a reduction in free energy when surfaces with bonding potential come into contact and an increase in free energy due to elastic deformation that is required to make these surfaces conform. An equilibrium state is defined by an incremental balance between these effects, akin to the Griffith crack growth criterion. In the case of adhesion of biological cells, the molecules that tend to form surface-to-surface bonds are confined to the cell wall but they are mobile within the wall, adding a new phenomenon of direct relevance to adhesive contact. In this article, the process of adhesive contact of an initially curved elastic plate to a flat surface is studied for the case in which the binders that account for adhesion are able to migrate within the plate. This is done by including entropic free energy of the binder distribution in the total free energy of the system. By adopting a constitutive assumption that binders migrate at a speed proportional to the local gradient in chemical potential, the transient growth of an adhesion zone due to binder transport is analyzed. For the case of a plate of very large extent, the problem can be solved in closed form, whereas numerical methods are invoked for the case of a plate of limited extent. Results are presented on the rate of growth of an adhesion zone in terms of system parameters, on the evolution of the distribution of binders and, in the case of a plate of limited extent, on the long-term limiting size of the adhesion zone.     

Mechanics of adhesive contact at the nanoscale: The effect of surface stress

At small length scales, the adhesion and surface effect are of great significance, both of which play important roles in the contact between two elastic solids. In this study, the classical Johnson–Kendall–Roberts (JKR) adhesive contact theory is generalized to the nanoscale at which the surface effect is considered. The influence of the surface stress on the JKR adhesive contact is investigated by employing the non-classical Boussinesq fundamental solutions. It is found that, compared with the classical theory, the pull-off force increases while the critical contact radius decreases as a result of the surface effect. Numerical results show that a relative error of 10% can be introduced in the pull-off force when the indenter radius is less than 20 nm. A detailed theoretical analysis of this interesting phenomenon is presented based on dimensional analysis, and two scaling laws for the adhesive contact at the nanoscale are constructed. These two new scaling laws reveal that the pull-off force is relevant to the elastic properties of the bulk materials, which is different from the classical adhesive contact theory. The present work is promising for the engineering applications in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) and nano-intelligent devices.     

Exact analysis of the orientation-adjusted adhesive full stick contact of layered structures with the asymmetric bipolar coordinates

The adhesion failure has become one dominant factor in determining the reliability and service life of miniaturized devices subject to loadings with arbitrary orientations. This article establishes an adhesive full stick contact model between an elastic half-space and a rigid cylinder loaded in any direction. Using the Papkovich-Neuber functions, the Fourier integral transform, and the asymmetric bipolar coordinates, the exact solution is obtained. Unlike the Johnson-Kendall-Roberts (JKR) model, the present adhesive contact model takes into account the effects of the load direction as well as the coupling of the normal and tangential contact stresses. Besides, it considers the full stick contact which has large values of the friction coefficient between contacting surfaces, contrary to the frictionless contact supposed in the JKR model. The result shows that suitable angles can be found, which makes the contact surfaces difficult to be peeled off or easy to be pressed into.

     

On the contact width in generalized plain strain JKR model for isotropic solids

Adhesive contact model between an elastic cylinder and an elastic half space is studied in the present paper, in which an external pulling force is acted on the above cylinder with an arbitrary direction and the contact width is assumed to be asymmetric with respect to the structure. Solutions to the asymmetric model are obtained and the effect of the asymmetric contact width on the whole pulling process is mainly discussed. It is found that the smaller the absolute value of Dundurs＇ parameter 13 or the larger the pulling angle O, the more reasonable the symmetric model would be to approximate the asymmetric one.     

The Lie-group shooting method for boundary-layer problems with suction/injection/reverse flow conditions for power-law fluids

For power-law fluids we propose a Lie-group shooting method to tackle the boundary-layer problems under a suction/injection as well as a reverse flow boundary conditions. The Crocco transformation is employed to reduce the third-order equation to a second-order ordinary differential equation, and then through a symmetric extension to a boundary value problem with constant boundary conditions, which can be solved numerically by the Lie-group shooting method. However, the resulting equation is singular, which might be difficult to solve, and we propose a technique to overcome the initial impulse caused by the singularity using a very small time-step integration at the first few time steps. Because we can express the missing initial condition through a closed-form formula in terms of the weighting factor r∈(0,1), the Lie-group shooting method is very effective for searching the multiple-solutions of a reverse flow boundary condition.     

Réduction a priori de modèles thermomécaniquesAn a priori model reduction method for thermomechanical problems

A model reduction method is proposed for finite element models. A previous computation of the state of the structure is not necessary. Residuals defined over the entire time interval and the Karhunen–Loève method provide basis functions. A non-incremental algorithm, from the LATIN method, is used to compute this basis functions. Because of the non-incremental feature, the reduced order model is representative for a large evolution of the state of the structure. To cite this article: D. Ryckelynck, C. R. Mecanique 330 (2002) 499–505.