A new static method to determine the ratio of the shear modulus over the longitudinal osmotic modulus for swollen gels

Swelling equilibrium of cylindrical gels under uniaxial compression has been studied. Based on the equivalence of the response of a network to osmotic deswelling and to deswelling induced by unidirectional compression a new method has been developed in order to determine the ratio of the shear modulus over the longitudinal osmotic modulus. For the experiments chemically cross-linked poly(vinyl acetate) gels swollen in toluene and iso-propyl alcohol have been used.