I am using a 40mm 1° cone with a 10% strain raised in 0.1s for 1000s to study the stress relaxation of hydrogels. The machine is HDR-1 TA Instrument.

My issue arises when dealing with softer gels, typically with a modulus of less than 100Pa. In such cases, I have observed significant noise in the initial 1-second data (the modulus vibrating between tens to hundreds Pa). This complicates my data processing, particularly when normalizing the modulus to the initial point at 10% strain (i.e., 0.1s).

I tried parallel plate with 1%, 5% strain but didn't solve the issue.