What level of friction guarantees adhesion in a complete contact?

The Williams' solution for the state of stress near the apex of an elastic wedge is used to study the traction distribution adjacent to the tip of a complete contact. Assuming that the surfaces remain in contact during loading, the coefficient of friction needed to ensure local adhesion is found. This is compared with that predicted by an analysis of an elastic rectangle clamped between elastic half-planes and is shown to be consistent. The results are appropriate to all complete contacts between elastically similar components. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]