Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is one of the most popular elastomers and has been used in
di erent fields, especially in biomechanics research. Among the many interesting features of this
material, its hyperelastic behavior stands out, which allows the use of PDMS in various applications,
like the ones that mimic soft tissues. However, the hyperelastic behavior is not linear and needs
detailed analysis, especially the characterization of shear strain. In this work, two approaches,
numerical and experimental, were proposed to characterize the e ect of shear strain on PDMS.
The experimental method was implemented as a simple shear testing associated with 3D digital
image correlation and was made using two specimens with two thicknesses of PDMS (2 and 4 mm).
A finite element software was used to implement the numerical simulations, in which four di erent
simulations using the Mooney–Rivlin, Yeoh, Gent, and polynomial hyperelastic constitutive models
were performed. These approaches showed that the maximum value of shear strain occurred in the
central region of the PDMS, and higher values emerged for the 2 mm PDMS thickness. Qualitatively,
in the central area of the specimen, the numerical and experimental results have similar behaviors and
the values of shear strain are close. For higher values of displacement and thicknesses, the numerical
simulation results move further away from experimental values.
Description
Keywords
3D digital image correlation Finite element method Hyperelastic constitutive models Hyperelasticity Numerical simulation Polydimethylsiloxane Shear strain
Citation
Souza, Andrews; Marques, Eduardo; Balsa, Carlos; Ribeiro, João (2020). Characterization of shear strain on PDMS: Numerical and experimental approaches. Applied Sciences. ISSN 2076-3417. 10:9, p. 1-15