Cohesive failure of thin layers of soft model adhesives under tension

The cohesive failure of soft adhesives is studied using a yield stress fluid as a model adhesive, which allow to relate the viscoelastic properties of the fluid directly to its adhesive performance. We derive a theoretical expression for the force-distance curve as a function of the yield stress, which describes our experimental results very well. The theoretical prediction is obtained by assuming a circular air-adhesive interface; surprisingly, good agreement between theory and experiment is also obtained when strong fingering instabilities are observed in the experiment. This result is confirmed by the fact that we do not find a significant reduction in the work of adhesion when fingering instabilities are present. In addition, we discuss the morphology of the fingering instabilities. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics. [DOI:10.1063/1.153309.5].