Simulation of the attachment system with various tip shapes contacting rough surface

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate the effects of various contact shapes on the adhesion performance for the attachment system contacting rough surfaces. Four different tip shapes of sphere, flat punch, torus and tape are considered. We demonstrate the effect of the tip size and the elastic modulus on the adhesion force through the adhesion analysis for single tips with four different shapes. In order to investigate an effect of tip shape on adhesion performance for the attachment system contacting rough surface with different σ values, single level attachment system was simulated. The attachment system is modeled from the geometrical size of spatulae of Tokay gecko. The effect of tip shape on the adhesion enhancement and how far its effect can be reached for the surface roughness are investigated. It is shown that the effect of tip shape on the adhesion enhancement is limited to the surface roughness with smaller than several micrometers and further adhesion enhancement can not be expected at rougher surfaces.

Keywords:

• tip shape
• gecko
• adhesion
• rough surface

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the Korea Research Foundation Grant funded by the Korean Government (MOEHRD, Basic Research Promotion Fund) (KRF-2008-331-D00051).