Investigation of adhesion hysteresis between rubber and glass using a pendulum

Rolling of a rigid cylinder on a rubber slab is performed by the swing of a simple pendulum. As the cylinder contacts the rubber a rectangular area of contact results, which increases in width with the pendulum swing. The motion of the cylinder, which exhibits some non-sinusoidal behaviour, decays with time due to the viscoelastic dissipation in the rubber. This decay seems to be independent of the chemical properties of the interface. A model is developed in which the rolling is considered as two cracks, one opening at the trailing edge and the other closing at the leading edge. A viscoelastic model of contact mechanics that accounts for the viscoelastic dissipation near these two crack tip regions is successfully applied to account for the characteristics of the decay of the pendulum including its non-sinusoidal behaviour.