Effect of head shape on the adhesion capability of mushroom-like biological adhesive structures

Theoretical studies have been extensively performed to reveal the mechanism of the biological adhesive structure with a flat head. However, most biological adhesive structures have a big head. Here we investigate the effect of the head shape on the adhesion capability of a mushroomlike adhesion structure based on a finite element model. We show that a mushroom-like head produces significant adhesion enhancement. We investigate also the effect of the elastic modulus of the adhesive structure on the adhesion. Our results are consistent with existing experimental results.