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Updated: Oct 8, 2025
09:06
Evaluation of the Curing of Adhesive Systems by Rheological and Thermal Testing
Published on: July 3, 2020
7.4K
Pressurized interfacial failure of soft adhesives
Hares Wahdat1, Cathy Zhang2, Nicky Chan2
1Polymer Science and Engineering Department, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA 01003, USA. acrosby@umass.edu.
Soft Matter
|January 4, 2022
Summary
A new pressurized interfacial failure (PIF) method controls soft material separation, revealing consistent failure mechanisms across different acrylic adhesives. This technique enables precise measurement of adhesion properties.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Polymer Science
- Adhesion Science
Background:
- Interfacial separation in soft materials often leads to instabilities like cavitation and fingering.
- These instabilities complicate the accurate measurement of bulk and interfacial contributions to adhesion.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop a novel method for controlled interfacial separation of soft adhesives.
- To quantitatively decouple bulk and interfacial contributions to adhesion.
Main Methods:
- Developed the pressurized interfacial failure (PIF) method using an annular probe and positive pressure.
- Conducted experiments on model and commercial acrylic adhesives.
- Applied linear elastic fracture mechanics and finite element analysis to model interfacial separation.
Main Results:
- All tested acrylic adhesives exhibited an inside-out interfacial cavity growth under PIF.
- PIF revealed consistent trends between cavity radius, pressure, and contact force, unlike conventional tack tests.
- Calculated critical energy release rate (Gc) values using PIF aligned with sphere-probe tack test results.
Conclusions:
- The PIF method effectively controls interfacial failure mechanisms in soft adhesives.
- PIF provides a reliable approach for quantifying adhesion properties and decoupling bulk/interfacial contributions.
- This method offers a new foundation for understanding and characterizing soft material adhesion.
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