Hertzian Contact and Adhesion of Elastomers

Abstract

The contact of a hard sphere with a flat elastomer is examined both analytically and experimentally when adhesive stresses are present. Use of a transparent spherical indenter enables continuous measurement of contact size while the samples are pulled apart. For any combination of load and contact area, the superposition of a Hertz and a Boussinesq stress distribution separates the contact into a circular zone under compression and an outer annulus under tension. During separation, while the contact size decreases and the tensile annulus becomes a larger percentage of the total contact, the average tensile stress remains constant. This average adhesive is a material property which is easily measured and is shown to be invariant with respect to indenter radius and initial contact pressure. An application of this analysis to opaque indenters is described.