Competition between delamination and fracture in multiple peeling problems

TL;DR

This paper develops a formalism and numerical model to analyze the complex interplay of mechanical mechanisms in multiple peeling systems, inspired by biological adhesives, to optimize their detachment behavior.

Contribution

It introduces a new formalism and numerical simulation approach for predicting detachment in multi-tape adhesive systems, advancing bioinspired adhesive design.

Findings

Predicts the occurrence of elastic deformation, delamination, and fracture.

Simulates complex peeling behavior in staple-pin architectures.

Provides tools for designing tunable bioinspired adhesives.

Abstract

Adhesive attachment systems consisting of multiple tapes or strands are commonly found in nature, for example in spider web anchorages or in mussel byssal threads, and their structure has been found to be ingeniously architected in order to optimize mechanical properties, in particular to maximize dissipated energy before full detachment. These properties emerge from the complex interplay between mechanical and geometric parameters, including tape stiffness, adhesive energy, attached and detached lengths and peeling angles, which determine the occurrence of three main mechanisms: elastic deformation, interface delamination and tape fracture. In this paper, we introduce a formalism to evaluate the mechanical performance of multiple tape attachments in different parameter ranges, allowing to predict the corresponding detachment behaviour. We also introduce a numerical model to simulate the complex multiple peeling behaviour of complex structures, illustrating its predictions in the case of the staple-pin architecture. We expect the presented formalism and numerical model to provide important tools for the design of bioinspired adhesive systems with tunable or optimized detachment properties.