A VARIANT OF JKR TEST - A SLIGHTLY INFLAT ED BALLOON

The JKR (Johnson, Kendall and Roberts) technique presents certain adva ntages as a method for studying static adhesion. We consider a variant of this technique in which a solid elastomeric sphere is replaced by a spherical membrane containing gas at a (slight) excess pressure. Und er suitable conditions, this variant presents the advantages of a larg er contact radius and a dependence of the energy of adhesion on the sq uare of this radius, rather than its cube. In addition, the effective modulus of the system related to the excess pressure, is decoupled fro m the energy of adhesion.