Nanorheological analysis of the sphere plane contact problem with interfacial films

The contact between an elastic sphere and plane separated by an elastic int erfacial thin layer is analysed under pure squeeze action. This analysis is an important step in the investigation of more realistic problem such as v iscoelastic and heterogeneous squeeze problem encountered in surface force experiments. The problem is shown to be governed by two dimensionless param eters coupling the material properties of the layer (shear and bulk modulus ) and the substrate (reduced young modulus) with the thinness ratio of the sphere plane distance to the sphere radius. Different regimes are obtained and described according to the value of these two parameters. (C) 2001 Else vier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.