STRENGTH OF GLASS FIBERS

Abstract Present understanding of strength of bare glass fibers is reviewed. Key experimental results on the strengths of E-glass and silica fibers are examined to identify factors which control the strength and fatigue in glass fibers. The strength of pristine fibers can be classified (a) as intrinsic or extrinsic, and (b) as inert or fatigue. For improved fiber reliability and production efficiencies, one is primarily interested in extrinsic fatigue strength. On the other hand, for basic understanding of strength in terms of the structure of glass, one is interested in the intrinsic inert strength and its variation with composition. While much work has been done in the past, fundamental questions remain unanswered about both the extrinsic and the intrinsic strengths. For the extrinsic strengths, the important questions pertain to the identity of the flaws and the role of crack nucleation around inclusions. The difficulty in studying large extrinsic flaws lies in the fact that they occur very infrequently (one flaw in hundreds of kilometers of fiber!). For the intrinsic strengths, the key questions are (a) what determines the intrinsic strength of a fiber? and (b) why do pristine flawless fibers exhibit fatigue which is qualitatively (and to a significant extent quantitatively) similar to that in non-pristine fibers?.

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