Adhesive contact and kinetics of adherence between a rigid cylinder and a soft elastomeric solid

The equilibrium contact of a rigid cylinder applied against the flat and smooth surface of a soft elastomer sample (natural rubber) is examined and a method is proposed for evaluating both the Young's modulus E of the rubber-like material tested and the Dupre' energy of adhesion w using a presentation of results similar to that recently described by Chaudhury et al. from the previous work of Barquins. New results on the kinetics of adherence at imposed normal load are presented. They consist of a study of variations of the strain energy release rate G and of the associate dissipation function Phi = (G-w)/w as a function of the crack propagation speed V at the interface between the rigid cylinder and the elastic solid. As expected, a master curve Phi(V) is found, confirming the variation of Phi as the 0.55 power function of V, as recently established in rolling and rebound experiments by Barquins and Charmet with the same rubber-like material. (C) Academie des Sciences/Elsevier, Paris.