Abstract:
Contact mechanics between elastic solids with random surface roughness is the basis for understanding a huge number of phenomenon in nature and technology. In my presentation I will describe a novel theory for contact between solids with surface roughness on many length scales (typically fractal-like surfaces) which has been found to be remarkable accurate and flexible, and which can be applied to elastic, elastoplastic, viscoelastic and layered materials. The theory includes the long-range elastic coupling and can be used for surfaces with random roughness with arbitrary surface roughness power spectrum. As applications I will first briefly describe how the theory can be used to calculate the leak-rate of seals, after which I focus on applications to dry and wet adhesion in technology and biology.

Biosketch:
Dr. Persson got his PhD in Condensed Matter theory at Chalmers Technical University, Gothenburg, Sweden, in 1980. After one year as a postdoc at IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, New York and another year at IBM Zürich Research Laboratory, he has spent most of his time as research scientist at Research Center Jülich. In addition to his research activity, Dr. Persson has founded a consulting company (see www.MultiscaleConsulting.com) supplying advice and software to industrial companies in matters related to tribology and contact mechanics. Dr. Persson has been awarded the VOLVO prize in physics (1981), the Walter-Schottky-Prize (1996), the John Yarwood Memorial Medal (1997), and Japan Society for the Promotion of Science award (2004, 2007, 2009).