Adhesion-induced instabilities in elastic and elastic–plastic contacts during single and repetitive normal loading

Adhesive interaction in spherical contacts was modeled with the Lennard-Jones (L-J) potential. Elastic adhesive contact was analyzed by the equivalent system of a rigid sphere with reduced radius of curvature and a half-space of effective elastic modulus. The critical gap at the instant of abrupt surface contact (jump-in) and separation (jump-out) was determined from the deformed surface profile of the elastic half-space and geometrical relationships. A finite element model of a rigid sphere and an elastic–plastic half-space was used to examine elastic–plastic adhesive contact. Surface adhesion was modeled by nonlinear springs with a force–displacement relationship governed by the L-J potential. The evolution of the interfacial force and the central gap distance as well as the occurrence of jump-in and jump-out instabilities were investigated in terms of the Tabor parameter, plasticity parameter, and dimensionless maximum normal displacement. The force–displacement response due to several approach–retraction cycles was interpreted in the context of elastic and plastic shakedown behaviors using dimensionless parameters.