Finite deformations govern the anisotropic shear-induced area reduction of soft elastic contacts

Solid contacts involving soft materials are important in mechanical engineering or biomechanics. Experimentally, such contacts have been shown to shrink significantly under shear, an effect which is usually explained using adhesion models. Here we show that quantitative agreement with recent high-load experiments can be obtained, with no adjustable parameter, using a non-adhesive model, provided that finite deformations are taken into account....