Adhesion – Solid-Solid Contact
Adhesion is the phenomenon that
occurs when two surfaces are pressed
together either under a pure normal force
together,
or under combined normal and shear
forces. A normal tensile force must be
exerted to separate the surfaces, Fig.
4.1.1 The ratio of the normal tensile force
W′ required for separation to the normal
compressive force initially applied is often
referred to as the coefficient of adhesion,
µ′
W′
µ′ =
W
Fig. 4.1.1 Schematic illustration of normal pull of
two solid bodies; W is the compression normal force
(load) applied for a certain duration and W′ is the
tensile normal force needed to separate surfaces.
1 Dr. M. M. Razzaque
Proximity of the asperities results in
an adhesive joint caused by interatomic
attractions because of physical and
chemical interactions. A chemical
interaction involves covalent bonds, ionic
or electrostatic bonds, metallic bonds,
y g bonds. Physical
and hydrogen y
interaction involves the weak van der
Waals bonds.
For two solid surfaces in contact,
the interfacial bond may be stronger than
the cohesive bond in the cohesively
weaker of the two materials. In that
case, on separation of the two solids this
results in the transfer of the cohesively
weaker material to the cohesively
stronger.
 Because of surface roughness
roughness, the real
area of contact is usually very much smaller
than the apparent area. Adhesion is
affected by the contact area which is a
function of normal load,, surface roughness
g
and mechanical properties. Materials with
higher roughness, modulus of elasticity
and/or hardness and lack of ductility exhibit
lower real area of contact which leads to
l
lower adhesion.
dh i

Any viscoelastic/ viscoplastic

deformation (creep) under load would
i
increase th
the reall area off contact
t t as a
function of duration of contact, leading to an
increase in adhesion.

W′ typically
t i ll iincreases lilinearly
l with
ith lload
d
and generally increases with duration of
static contact and separation rate.

Fig. 4.2.2 (a) Adhesive force as a function of

normal load, and (b) coefficient of adhesion
as a function of duration of contact for a clean
steel sphere on indium (From McFarlane and
Tabor,, 1950))

2 Dr. M. M. Razzaque