Peeling adhesive tape: A case study for understanding the effective properties of heterogenous materials

Kaushik Bhattacharya, Ph.D.  
Howell N. Tyson, Sr., Professor of Mechanics and  Professor of Materials Science
Executive Officer, Mechanical and Civil Engineering
California Institute of Technology 

While  there  is  a  good  understanding  of  the  overall  behavior of  heterogeneous  materials  concerning  properties  that  are  characterized  by  a variational  principle,  much  remains  unknown concerning those properties that are characterized by evolutionary processes.  This talk will discuss the simple process of peeling an adhesive tape from a rigid substrate as a case study to demonstrate the complexities that can arise in this situation. Specifically, we show that that one can dramatically affect adhesive strength by patterning the elastic modulus of the tape, or by patterning the surface of the adhesive. The talk will conclude with broader  lessons  for  other  phenomena  including  fracture,  dislocations,  phase  boundaries and wetting fronts.

This talk is based on joint work with S. Xia, L. Ponson and G. Ravichandran.

Kaushik  Bhattacharya  is  Howell  N.  Tyson,  Sr.,  Professor  of  Mechanics  and  Professor  of  Materials Science as well as the Executive Officer for Mechanical and Civil Engineering at the  California  Institute  of  Technology.    His  research concerns the mechanical  behavior  of  solids,  and specifically  uses theory  to  guide  the  development  of  new  materials.    He  received  his  B.Tech  degree  from  the  Indian  Institute  of  Technology,  Madras,  India  in  1986,  his  Ph.D  from  the  University  of  Minnesota  in 1991  and  his  post-doctoral  training  at  the  Courant  Institute  for Mathematical  Sciences  during  1991-1993.    He  joined  Caltech  in  1993.      He   has   held   visiting   positions   at   Cornell   University,   Heriot-Watt   University  (Scotland),  Max-Planck-Institute  (Leipzig,  Germany),  University  of  Cambridge  (England),  Indian  Institute  of  Science  (Bangalore,  India)  and  the  Jet  Propulsion  Laboratory.    He  is currently an Editor of the Journal of the Mechanics and Physics of Solids.