Peeling behavior of a bio-inspired nano-film on a substrate

A peeling model is proposed to analyze the peeling properties of bio-mimetic nano-films using the finite element method (FEM) and theoretical approach. The influences of the nano-film’s adhesion length, thickness, elastic modulus, roughness and peeling angle on the peeling force were considered as well as the effect of the viscoelastic behavior. It has been found that the effective adhesion length, at which the peeling force attained maximum, was much smaller than the real length of nano-films; and the shear force dominated in the case of smaller peeling angles, whereas, the normal force dominated at larger peeling angles. The total peeling force decreased with an increasing peeling angle. Two limiting values of the peeling-off force can be found in the viscoelastic model, which corresponds to the smaller and larger loading rate cases. The effects of nano-film thickness and Young’s modulus on peeling behaviors were also discussed. The results obtained are helpful for understanding the micro-adhesion mechanisms of biological systems, such as geckos.