Determination of the ratio of the shear modulus over the longitudinal modulus for swollen networks

The ratio of the shear modulus over the longitudinal osmotic modulus has been determined by different experimental methods. Osmotic deswelling, swelling kinetics as well as deswelling induced by unidirectional compression were performed. For the experiments chemically cross-linked poly(vinyl acetate) gels swollen in toluene and acetone (good solvents) and iso-propyl alcohol (poor solvent) have been used. The results are in agreement with the theoretical predictions.