Extreme softness of brain matter in simple shear

•We perform simple shear experiments on small rectangular fresh samples of porcine brain matter at quasi-static strain rates.•We show that the Mooney–Rivlin strain energy function captures adequately the data, up to strains as high as 60%.•We find that porcine brain matter is about 30 times less resistant to shear forces than a silicone gel.•We check experimentally that porcine brain matter exhibits the positive Poynting effect of non-linear elasticity.•We check numerically that the stress and strain fields remain mostly homogeneous in simple shear.

We show that porcine brain matter can be modelled accurately as a very soft rubber-like material using the Mooney–Rivlin strain energy function, up to strains as high as 60%. This result followed from simple shear experiments performed on small rectangular fresh samples (2.5 cm3 and 1.1 cm3) at quasi-static strain rates. They revealed a linear shear stress–shear strain relationship (R2>0.97)(R2>0.97), characteristic of Mooney–Rivlin materials at large strains. We found that porcine brain matter is about 30 times less resistant to shear forces than a silicone gel. We also verified experimentally that brain matter exhibits the positive Poynting effect of non-linear elasticity, and numerically that the stress and strain fields remain mostly homogeneous throughout the thickness of the samples in simple shear.