An Experimental Method for Determining Poisson’s Ratio of Elastomers

Abstract

One of the most important and sensitive parameters defining the characteristic behavior of compliant-surface, fluid-film bearings has been found to be the value of Poisson’s ratio of the elastomer material—a 1 percent variation in ν in the range of common values produces about a 25 percent change in load carrying capacity. Since values of Poisson’s ratio for the common elastomers are unknown with any degree of accuracy, an experimental method has been devised to measure Poisson’s ratio for typical cases to better than four significant figures. This paper describes the method together with an error analysis and typical data from elastomeric samples.