Brown, K.R., Creton, C. (2002) "Nucleation and Growth of Cavities in Soft Viscoelastic Layers under Tensile Stress, in press in Eur. Phys. J. E.
abstract: The process of growth of an individual cavity in a viscoelastic adhesive layer has been investigated experimentally. The formation of cavities was caused by the application of a negative pressure on a very confined layer with a flat-ended probe. The cavities appeared in the bulk of the adhesive layer and were observed for a range of values of applied stress approximately ten times higher than shear modulus ogf the adhesive layer. Depending on the loading rate, the shape of the growing cavity changed from a flat disc to a more spherical shape. Furthermore, the growth rate of the cavity radius was consistent with a constant strain rate at the edge of the cavity, wich suggests a constant level of stress at the edge of the cavity.