The superiority of many natural surfaces at resisting soft, sticky biofoulants has inspired the integration of dynamic topography with mechanical instability to promote self-cleaning artificial surfaces. The physics behind this novel mechanism is currently limited to elastic biofoulants where surface energy, bending stiffness, and topographical wavelength are key factors. However, the viscoelastic nature of many biofoulants causes a complex interplay between these factors with time-dependent characteristics such as material softening and loading rate. Here, we enrich the current elastic theory of topographic de-adhesion using analytical and finite element models to elucidate the non-linear, time-dependent interaction of three physical, dimensionless parameters: biofoulant's stiffness reduction, product of relaxation time and loading rate, and the critical strain for short-term elastic de-adhesion. Theoretical predictions, in good agreement with numerical simulations, provide insight into tuning these control parameters to optimize surface renewal via topographic de-adhesion in the viscoelastic regime.

中文翻译：

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粘弹性极限内的形貌脱粘

许多天然表面在抵抗柔软、粘性生物污垢方面的优势激发了动态地形与机械不稳定性的结合，以促进自清洁人造表面。这种新机制背后的物理学目前仅限于弹性生物污垢，其中表面能、弯曲刚度和地形波长是关键因素。然而，许多生物污垢的粘弹性性质导致这些因素与时间相关特性（如材料软化和负载率）之间存在复杂的相互作用。在这里，我们使用解析和有限元模型丰富了当前的地形脱粘弹性理论，以阐明三个物理无量纲参数的非线性、时间相关的相互作用：生物污垢的刚度降低、松弛时间和加载率的乘积，以及短期弹性脱粘的临界应变。理论预测与数值模拟非常一致，可以深入了解调整这些控制参数以通过粘弹性状态下的地形脱粘来优化表面更新。