Micro-scale adhesive contact of a spherical rigid punch on a piezoelectric half-space

The micro-scale adhesive contact behavior of a spherical rigid punch on a piezoelectric half-space was investigated in this paper. The governing equations describing the piezoelectric adhesive contact behavior were obtained by using the Maugis-Dugdale (M-D) elastic adhesive contact theory [Maugis D. Adhesion of spheres: the JKR-DMT transition using a Dugdale model. J Colloid Interf Sci 1992;150(1):243–69]. The solutions for indentation of piezoelectric materials and for elastic adhesive contact can be reduced from the present results in the absence of adhesion effect and piezoelectric effect, respectively. The effect of the electric load on the adhesive contact behavior was analyzed in detail. It was shown that the piezoelectric effect has a significant effect on the adhesive contact behavior of piezoelectric materials. The obtained results will be helpful to understand the micro-indentation properties of piezoelectric materials and piezoelectric composites.