Finite element analysis was carried out using COMSOL 6.2. Gold microwires were modeled using the shell library, while PDMS was modeled as an elastic material using the structural mechanics library. The two materials were coupled using a multiphysics solidthin structure connection, with both material properties taken from COMSOL's built-in materials library. Meshing was performed using a free quad mesh for shell elements and a free tetrahedral mesh for PDMS. All simulations employed a fixed boundary condition on one side and a prescribed displacement on the other side of the sample, except for the angle study where a roller condition was used. Stationary studies were conducted from 0 to 40% strain, a range within which PDMS can be well approximated as an elastic material (Skow et al 2016). Von Mises stress was used to evaluate the stress in the microwires.