Adhesion of beams with subsurface elastic heterogeneity

Abstract Beam-like structures with enhanced and selective adhesion as well as low stiffness are of interest for applications such as microtransfer printing processes and soft robotic grasping devices. The stiffness and adhesion of compliant beams can be altered through the inclusion of structured stiff insets that alter the mechanical response and stress distribution at the adhered interface. Here, the adhesion behavior of compliant beams with embedded stiff insets below the surface are investigated. The length of inset and the spacing of the insets relative to the beam height are key parameters that control the adhesion behavior. The inclusion of a stiff inset increases the effective adhesion of the beam, but the maximum adhesion enhancement is only realized when the inset exceeds a critical inset length. The spacing between the insets plays a key role as well and inset spacings