A mechanism for enhanced static sliding resistance owing to surface waviness

This paper presents an analysis of static sliding resistance of a rigid sphere on a soft elastic material with axisymmetric waviness. When the sphere is loaded laterally under a fixed normal force, the contact area is subjected to mixed-mode loading. It is shown that, as the lateral loading increases, the decrease in contact area involves unstable jumps; and each unstable jump dissipates mechanical energy. The additional energy dissipation increases the peak force required for gross sliding of the interface compared with that of a flat surface. Thus, a mechanism is proposed for enhanced static sliding resistance on the surface of a soft material owing to surface waviness-induced instabilities. Such an increase in sliding resistance is analogous to a similar increase in the detachment force between a sphere and a wavy surface during normal separation, which was reported elsewhere. The influence of mode-mixity-dependent work of adhesion on the static sliding resistance of a wavy surface is also considered.