简介:Thispapercontinuesourrecentworkontherelationshipbetweendiscretecontactinteractionsatthemicroscopicscaleandcontinuumcontactinteractionsatthemacroscopicscale(Hulikaletal.,J.Mech.Phys.Solids76,144–161,2015).Thefocusofthisworkisonadhesion.Weshowthatacollectionofalargenumberofdiscreteelementsgovernedbyathreshold-forcebasedmodelatthemicroscopicscalecollectivelygivesrisetocontinuumfracturemechanicsatthemacroscopicscale.Akeystepistheintroductionofanefficientnumericalmethodthatenablesthecomputationofalargenumberofdiscretecontacts.Finally,whilethisworkfocusesonscalinglaws,themethodologyintroducedinthispapercanalsobeusedtostudyroughsurfaceadhesion.