The effects of different surface roughness models oil a previously developed van der Waals adhesion model were examined. The van der Waals adhesion model represented surface roughness with a distribution of hemispherical asperities. It was found that the constraints used to define the asperity distribution on the surface, which were determined from AFM scans, varied with scan size and thus were not constant for all surfaces examined. The greatest variation in these parameters occurred with materials that had large asperities or with materials where a large fraction of the Surface was covered by asperities. These rough Surfaces were modeled with fractals and also with a fast Fourier transform algorithm. When the model Surfaces generated using the Fourier transforms are used in the adhesion model, the model accurately predicts the experimentally observed adhesion forces measured with the AFM. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.