Abstract
This present study reconsiders the effect of surface tension on the behavior of adhesive contact between a rigid sphere and an elastic half-plane, in which the adhesive interactions are supposed to follow the Dugdale laws. The adhesive contact issue is transformed into two inter coupled non-linear integral equations which are governed by two parameters: λ (Maugis adhesion parameter) and S (elastocapillary number). By means of iteration method, numeric results are obtained. Analogous to the traditional Maugis-Dugdale (M-D) model, the results provide transition of the pull-off force between JKR and DMT type contact models through the Maugis adhesion parameter λ with a fixed parameter S. On the other hand, with a fixed adhesion parameter λ, we also present the transitions of the pull-off force between four extreme models, named M-D, JKR, Bradley models and Young–Dupre equation, through adjustment of the parameter S. Finally, we find the uniformity and discontinuity of the pressure distribution are affected by the combination of three factors: applied load P, adhesion parameter λ and elastocapillary number S.