The effect of flexible substrates on pressure-sensitive adhesive performance

The adhesive fracture energy (fracture toughness) of tapes during globally elastic unpeeling is often calculated from the relation “G=P/b(1−cos θ)”. We show that while this expression is correct for elastic peeling from rigid substrates, it gives misleading results when peeling from reversible flexible substrates. A two-dimensional analysis is presented for peeling from non-linear elastic substrates that give consistent fracture energies from experimental data.