Slight compressibility and sensitivity to changes in Poisson's ratio

Finite element simulations of rubbers and biological soft tissue usually assume that the material being deformed is slightly compressible. It is shown here that, in shearing deformations, the corresponding normal stress distribution can exhibit extreme sensitivity to changes in Poisson's ratio. These changes can even lead to a reversal of the usual Poynting effect. Therefore, the usual practice of arbitrarily choosing a value of Poisson's ratio when numerically modelling rubbers and soft tissue will, almost certainly, lead to a significant difference between the simulated and actual normal stresses in a sheared block because of the difference between the assumed and actual value of Poisson's ratio. The worrying conclusion is that simulations based on arbitrarily specifying Poisson's ratio close to 1/2 cannot accurately predict the normal stress distribution even for the simplest of shearing deformations. It is shown analytically that this sensitivity is caused by the small volume changes, which inevitably accompany all deformations of rubber-like materials. To minimise these effects, great care should be exercised to accurately determine Poisson's ratio before simulations begin.