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Revealing the co-action of viscous and multistability hysteresis in an adhesive, nominally flat punch: A combined numerical and experimental study
Viscoelasticity is well known to cause a significant hysteresis of crack closure and opening when an elastomer is brought in and out of contact with a flat, rigid counterface. In contrast, the idea that adhesive hysteresis can also result under quasi-static driving due to small-scale, elastic multistability is relatively new. Here, we study a system in which both mechanisms act concurrently. Specifically, we compare the simulated and experimentally measured time evolution of the interfacial force and the real contact area between a soft elastomer and a rigid, flat punch, to which small-scale, single-sinusoidal roughness is added. To this end, we further the Green's function molecular dynamics method and extend recently developed imaging techniques to elucidate the rate- and preload-dependence of the pull-off process. Our results reveal that hysteresis is much enhanced when the saddle points of the topography come into contact, which, however, is impeded by viscoelastic forces and may require sufficiently large preloads. A similar coaction of viscous- and multistability effects is expected to occur in macroscopic polymer contacts and be relevant, e.g., for pressure-sensitive adhesives and modern adhesive gripping devices.
Perception of Friction in Tactile Exploration of Micro-structured Rubber Samples
Fingertip friction and the related shear of skin are key mechanical mechanisms in tactile perception, but the perception of friction itself is rarely explored except for the flat surfaces of tactile displays. We investigated the perception of friction for tactile exploration of a unique set of samples whose fabric-like surfaces are equipped with regular arrays of flexible micropillars. The measured fingertip friction increases with decreasing bending stiffness, where the latter is controlled by radius (20–75 µm) and aspect ratio of the micropillars. In forced-choice tasks, participants noticed relative differences in friction as small as 0.2, and even smaller when a sample with less than 100 µm distance between pillars is omitted from the analysis. In an affective ranking of samples upon active touch, the perception of pleasantness is anticorrelated with the measured friction. Our results offer insights towards a rational design of materials with well-controlled surface microstructure which elicit a dedicated tactile appeal.
Soft Inkjet Circuits: Rapid Multi-Material Fabrication of Soft Circuits using a Commodity Inkjet Printer
Despite the increasing popularity of soft interactive devices, their fabrication remains complex and time consuming. We contribute a process for rapid do-it-yourself fabrication of soft circuits using a conventional desktop inkjet printer. It supports inkjet printing of circuits that are stretchable, ultrathin, high resolution, and integrated with a wide variety of materials used for prototyping. We introduce multi-ink functional printing on a desktop printer for realizing multi-material devices, including conductive and isolating inks. We further present DIY techniques to enhance compatibility between inks and substrates and the circuits' elasticity. This enables circuits on a wide set of materials including temporary tattoo paper, textiles, and thermoplastic. Four application cases demonstrate versatile uses for realizing stretchable devices, e-textiles, body-based and re-shapeable interfaces.
Fingertip friction and tactile rating of wrapping papers
The tactile exploration and perception of wrapping papers is investigated in terms of fingertip friction and rating of sensory, affective, and evaluative adjectives. Friction coefficients, which vary significantly between samples, are correlated with factors such as valence which are identified in a principal component analysis of subjective ratings. We found that affective appraisals of valence and arousal as well as evaluations of novelty, but not of value, decreased with increasing friction.