The tack of polymer melts on rigid substrates under conditions of short contact times and low pressures is examined. The substrate is modeled as a random rough surface with a distribution of asperities heights. The true contact area between the adhesive and the substrate is calculated for a given total load and elastic modulus of the substrate. The dependence of tack on contact time is accounted for by introducing the relaxation of the adhesive through a time-dependent elastic modulus. For relatively high pressures the tack is predicted to scale with 1/E so that for short contact times, tc, the tack is predicted to scale with (tc/τe)1/2, where τe is the entanglement time. For lower pressures this simple scaling law is no longer valid and we predict a complex variation of tack with contact time and molecular parameters. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Creton et al. (1996) studied this question.