On the Effect of Shear Loading Rate on Contact Area Shrinking in Adhesive Soft Contacts

Adhesion and, its interplay with friction, is central in several engineering applications involving soft contacts. Recently, there has been an incredible push towards a better understanding on how the apparent contact area evolves when a shear load is applied to an adhesive soft contact, both experimentally and theoretically. Although soft materials are well-known to exhibit rate-dependent properties, there is still a lack of understanding in...