On mixed-mode fracture mechanics models for contact area reduction under shear load in soft materials
The fundamental problem of friction in the presence of macroscopic adhesion, as in soft bodies, is receiving interest from many experimentalists. Since the first fracture mechanics 'purely brittle' model of Savkoor and Briggs, models have been proposed where the mixed mode toughness is interpreted with phenomenological fitting coefficients introducing weaker coupling between modes than expected by the "purely brittle" model.