Membrane Adhesion in Shear

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I am trying to set up a 3D contact adhesion problem between a substrate and a very thin layer, please see image. 3D is required because the depth (into the page) of the layer is smaller than that of the susbtrate.

I am able to generate correct results (congruent with theory) by simulating everything as solids, and adding a contact pair. The substrate acts as a source, and the bottom of the layer is the destination. I set up an adhesion node with user-defined stiffness both tangential and normal.

However, because the layer is very thin, the simulation is quite intensive and requires a lot of elements. I imagine I could speed it up by replacing the layer by a membrane, i.e. use the membrane physics for the layer. I have tried but I think I am selecting the options wrong because it doesn't even run. Questions:

  1. Is this even possible? I have both a Solid Mechanics and a Membrane, interacting with each other.
  2. How to set up the contact? Because a membrane is not a solid in the geometry, I cannot select it as a destination boundary. I am also confused about the option of top/bottom source/destination for the membrane. Also, do I need to activate contact in both the solid mechanics and membrane?

Note that the "ball indenting a membrane" example in the COMSOL tutorials treats the membrane as a solid, so it is not directly applicable. Thanks.



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