Adhesive contact of a rigid sphere to finitely stretched substrates

Exemplified by adhesive contact of a rigid sphere with equiaxially stretched elastomeric substrates, the effect of finite pre-strain on adhesion behavior is studied based on the JKR model. The analysis indicates that the pre-strain reduces the contact area between the sphere and the substrate, but does not alter the adhesion strength. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10625212) and Natural Science Research Foundation of Anhui Province (Grant Nos. 2006KJ075A, ZD2008001)