Relationship of stress to uniaxial strain in crosslinked poly(dimethylsiloxane) over the full range from large compressions to high elongations

Experiments on inflated sheets of crosslinked poly(dimethylsiloxane) covering a sixfold range of compression are combined with measurements in elongation conducted on specimens from the same sample to obtain the relationship of stress to strain over a 24‐fold range in the extension ratio λ 1 . With increase in λ the reduced force [ f ] ≡ f (λ 1 – λ ) −1 rises to a maximum near λ = 1.2–1.4, then decreases very slowly with further increase in λ . The form of the relationship of [ f ] to λ confirms recent theory.