Wave Phenomena in Low Angle Peeling

The angular dependence of peeling has been investigated over a wide range of peel angles for a rubber strip peeled from glass. At low peel angles the peel front becomes “V”-shaped, wave phenomena are often observed and the peel energy can increase by an order of magnitude or more. A tentative theory, which appears to give the correct magnitude in a worked example, is advanced to account for the energy increase. The influence of factors such as electrostatic charge, deformation and rate on the observed phenomena are discussed.