MECHANICS OF ADHESION - Nanoindentation with Biological Applications - page 77

environment is shown in Fig. 4-1 . The behavior of Φ S ( z ) are

shown in Fig. 4-2 . From a thermodynamic viewpoint, the “environment”
surrounding the surface + probe system is the indentation apparatus,
which, in this example, controls the size of the surface + probe system at
its exterior boundaries, s , and the temperature, T . The simple form taken
here for the interaction potential, allows closed-form analytical solutions
to be obtained for the parameters describing the equilibrium and
instability configurations of the system and thus the roles of the
interaction and spring coefficients in defining these parameters to be seen
explicitly.

Φ A ( z ) and

Figure 4-1. A schematic diagram of an indenter and contact system and the coordinate
system used to describe adhesive indentation contact behavior between a probe and
surface. The indenter imposes a probe position and system temperature and the tip and
spring respond in ways that depend on the probe spring constant and the interaction
between the tip and the surface.