Adhesion of viscoelastic materials to rigid substrates. III. Energy criterion for failure

Measurements are described of the strength of a model adhesive joint subjected to (1) tensile rupture, with the interface containing a small unbonded region of varying size, and (2) pure shear deformation, in the form of a partly unbonded sheet. These, and previous measurements of resistance to peeling separation, are all shown to be consistent with an energy criterion for adhesive failure. The characteristic failure energy per unit area of interface has been determined for the model adhesive material as a function of the effective rate of detachment, over a wide range covering almost the entire spectrum of viscoelastic response. The values obtained are found to increase from levels only slightly higher than thermodynamic considerations would predict, i.e., 102−103ergs/cm2, at low rates of crack propagation, up to a value of about 106ergs/cm2at high rates when the material responds in a glasslike manner. These results suggest that the failure energy has two components: the (reversible) work of adsorption and the (irreversible) work of deformation of the adhesive in effecting separation.