MEASURING INTERFACIAL ADHESION BETWEEN A SOFT VISCOELASTIC LAYER AND A RIGID SURFACE USING A PROBE METHOD

A reliable measure of the adhesion between a very deformable material and a solid surface is rather difficult, since the interface boundary conditions and the bulk deformation of the layer are closely and very nonlinearly coupled. In this article, a new methodology to assess the adhesion of a soft viscoelastic layer on a solid surface is proposed, where we have used a specific experimental geometry minimizing the bulk deformation of the layer. A flat-ended probe is first put in contact with a thin layer of soft material and removed at a constant velocity. The probe is then stopped at a preset level of tensile force and the time for complete debonding of the layer from the probe is measured. For our model system, comprised of a soft acrylic removable adhesive and a silicone-coated surface, the higher the applied force the faster the interfacial fracture occurs, leading to an experimental curve of the adhesion energy as a function of average crack velocity. We find that the methodology is relatively simple ...