Indentation mapping of stretched adhesive membranes

Abstract

Unilateral adhesive contact between a rigid indenter and a uniformly stretched membrane of arbitrary shape is considered. The generalized Johnson–Kendall–Roberts (JKR)-type and Derjaguin– Muller–Toporov (DMT)-type models of non-axisymmetric adhesive contact are presented for short- and long-range adhesion, respectively, and the JKR–DMT transition is established in the framework of the generalized Maugis–Dugdale model. A refined method of matched asymptotic expansions is applied to construct the leading-order asymptotic model for indentation mapping of freestanding two-dimensional materials with an axisymmetric probe, using the approximate analytical solution obtained in explicit form for an infinite membrane in the limit of short-range adhesive contact with an indenter in the form of an elliptic paraboloid. The cases of a spherical indenter and a rectangular membrane are studied in detail.