Relationship between viscoelastic and peeling properties of model adhesives. Part 1. Cohesive fracture

The viscoelastic and peeling properties of polybutadiene/tackifying resin compatible blends have been studied in detail. Viscoelastic properties have been described through the variations of the complex shear modulus, G(*)(omega), as a function of frequency, omega and peeling properties through the variations of peeling force (F) as a function of peeling rate (V). After showing the objective character of the peeling curves obtained, the variations of the peeling force and peeling geometry have been studied as a function of volume fraction of the tackifying resin. In this first paper, the analysis is focused on the first domain of the Feeling curves, i.e. the cohesive fracture region. In this region, the peeling properties have been related to the viscoelastic properties in the terminal region of relaxation. It is shown that the longest relaxation time, tau(o), is a reducing parameter of the peeling curves, so a peeling master curve-which is independent of temperature, resin volume fraction and polymer molecular weight-may be defined. Furthermore, the variations of the test geometry as a function of peeling rate have been investigated: the variations of the radius of curvature of the aluminium foil have been analyzed with respect to the viscoelastic behavior of the adhesive, which in fact governs the test geometry. A detailed analysis of all these features leads to a model which allows one to calculate the peeling curves in the cohesive domain from the adhesive formulation.