Hello, I am working with protein-based soft hydrogels, and I want to characterize the compression behaviour of my material in DMA. However, I have yet to find an adequate comparison of the best method of attaining this. Should I just do uniaxial compression to obtain a normal stress-strain curve, or should I run a frequency sweep at a fixed strain? I have found examples of both in determining modulus of samples, but few to no comparisons.
Any help would be apreciated.
Actually, you could do these tests both. But if your gels are really soft, I will recommend frequency sweep test to get the storage modulus and loss modulus.
Hi Nuno,
When you run a compression test with a soft specimen, you should pay attention on testing and deformation limits of sample. These points are highly important for gels. When you compress your sample it will quickly deform then you cannot go high strain values. I do not agree with the opinions about the reliability of frequency sweep test. I suggest you to run a length controlled time-dependent test by applying a particular displacement (depending on the thickness of your specimen) with a small rate of deformation then convert your data to stress-strain curve and determine elastic modulus...
Good Luck.
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