Interfacial separation between elastic solids with randomly rough surfaces: comparison of experiment with theory
Abstract
We study the average separation between an elastic solid and a hard solid, with a nominally flat but randomly rough surface, as a function of the squeezing pressure. We present experimental results for a silicon rubber (PDMS) block with a flat surface squeezed against an asphalt road surface. The theory shows that an effective repulsive pressure acts between the surfaces of the form p~exp(-u/u0), where u is the average separation between the surfaces and u0 a constant of the order of the root-mean-square roughness, in good agreement with the experimental results.
- Publication:
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Journal of Physics Condensed Matter
- Pub Date:
- January 2009
- DOI:
- 10.1088/0953-8984/21/1/015003
- arXiv:
- arXiv:0810.0950
- Bibcode:
- 2009JPCM...21a5003L
- Keywords:
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- Condensed Matter - Soft Condensed Matter
- E-Print:
- 6 pages, 10 figures