Mechanical characterization of hyperelastic polydimethylsiloxane by simple shear test

Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is a commercially silicone rubber widely used in mechanical sensors, electronic products and medical devices. This paper describes and analyzes the mechanical behavior of polymer PDMS under large shear deformations. The goal of this work is to estimate experimentally the angular distortions associated with different applied forces, considering a simple shear test based on single lap joints. The experimental procedure to obtain the displacement field is carried out using the digital image correlation (DIC) method, which is an optical-numerical experimental approach developed for full-field and non-contact measurements. The material parameters, associated with classical Mooney-Rivlin model, are estimated from experimental data by means of Levenberg-Marquardt method. Furthermore, due to nonlinear stress–strain behavior observed in experimental data, it is proposed a new nonlinear model and two new parameters are determined in the same way.