A Predictive Model to Assess the Adhesive Performance of Particle-Contaminated Tapes

Abstract Tapes are commonly used in environments where dust, particles, and other debris contaminate the adhesive interface, yet the mechanisms by which contamination, specifically rigid physical contaminants, affects peel performance is not well understood. To address this challenge and guide the design of tapes for use in dirty environments, we developed a semi-empirical model that predicts changes in peel behavior arising from rigid and spherical interfacial contaminants. The model accounts for spatial variations in the critical energy release rate along the peel front by treating regions near a contaminant as loaded crack segments and regions far away from contaminants as a homogeneous interface. Using this approach, we show that the interfacial morphology plays a decisive role in dictating the mechanism by which adhesion loss occurs. When defects are discrete and well dispersed, reduction in adhesion is dominated by local changes in the critical energy release rate introduced by individual particle contaminants. In contrast, when defects are large and impinge on each other to form a percolated network, adhesion loss is better captured by considering reductions in the effective peel-front length. This work provides insight into how different contamination regimes govern interfacial failure.