Bi-stable adhesion of a surface with a dimple

In this paper, we propose a new adhesive system of dimpled surfaces. The principle is derived from a contact mechanics model. The material is assumed to be linear elastic and isotropic, and attraction between the surfaces of the half-spaces is modeled via the concept of a specific adhesion energy. It is found that large and small detachments are unstable and will either grow or shrink spontaneously when their sizes are perturbed. It is shown that this phenomenon can lead to a new bi-stable adhesive system in which weak adhesion can be converted to strong adhesion by the application of pressure.