Tuning the mechanical properties of the viscoelastic materials, for the improvement of their adhesive performance

In this paper, the peeling of elastic thin tapes from real-like viscoelastic substrates is investigated by focusing the attention on the damping properties of this kind of materials. We show that the number of relaxation times involved in the physical process, is a key factor to increase the range in frequency where energy dissipation is predominant. This entails several advantages for appropriately managing the detachment process of the elastic tape. Indeed, we show how it is possible to obtain stable release conditions at high loads, so that the peeling force can be employed as control parameter. The practical case of the PMMA (polymethyl methacrylate) is considered as example, as it exhibits high damping at low-frequencies. As a result, stable detachment of the tape occurs at very small peeling velocities, especially with relatively stiff tapes. The results of this study can be exploited in many applications where the adherence of elastic tapes on viscoelastic substrates needs to be suitably designed such as, for example, in bio-medical contexts.