Determination of poisson's ratio for polyimide films

The Poisson's ratios of polyamic acid and polyimide films were determined using a high pressure gas dilatometer. In this technique, a sample is held at constant length and a hydrostatic pressure is applied to the sample. The resulting change in stress on the sample with applied pressure provides a measure of Poisson's ratio. For fully cured polyimide films based on pyromellitic dianhydride and oxydianiline, Poisson's ratio was measured to be 0.34 at approximately 1% strain. This value increases to 0.48 as the strain is increased to 5%.