%0 Journal Article
%A Persson, Bo
%T Contact mechanics for layered materials: Rubber film on hard substrate
%J The journal of chemical physics
%V 162
%N 21
%@ 0021-9606
%C Melville, NY
%I American Institute of Physics
%M FZJ-2025-03176
%P 214702
%D 2025
%X I consider the contact mechanics for a layered material, consisting of an elastically soft film glued to a hard substrate. I calculate the area of real contact for surfaces with fractal-like roughness and for surfaces with roughness in narrow length scale regions. For the fractal-like surfaces, when the product q0d of the film thickness d and the low cut-off wavenumber q0 of the surface roughness power spectrum satisfy q0d < 0.1, the effective modulus becomes very large. This results in large contact stresses, which can induce plastic deformation or wear, in particular during sliding contact. I also calculate the probability distributions of the normal and tangential stresses at the film-substrate interface. If the tangential (shear) stress is too high, the adhesive bond between the film and the substrate will break. I compare the thin-film contact mechanics problem with the Gent solution for a thin elastic sheet confined between two flat solid surfaces, and discuss the origin of the difference in effective elastic modulus.
%F PUB:(DE-HGF)16
%9 Journal Article
%$ 40459356
%U <Go to ISI:>//WOS:001506905700017
%R 10.1063/5.0274655
%U https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/1044413