Characterization of Optical Fiber Strength Under Applied Tensile Stress and Bending Stress

Abstract

Combinations of tensile testing and bending stress-induced tests were conducted on different diameter optical fibers, with different protective coatings, manufactured by different fiber vendors. Various types of stress-aging effects were studied. The work was done to gain an understanding of mechanical strength variability of optical fiber and the effects of environment as they relate to potential applications in optical firing systems designs and enhanced surveillance campaign activity.

Size Effects of High Strength Steel Wires

“…When careful process control is practiced, the size effects of glass fiber are absent, as demonstrated by Otto [23]. Current optical glass fibers that are well protected by polymer coating also exhibit no size effect of their strength [16]; 18 samples of 0.125-to 0.4-mm diameter (L = 1 to 2.5 m) showed the average strength of 4.58 ± 0.29 GPa. These points are plotted in Figure 1c with dark blue points.…”

“…(b) Griffith glass fiber data (1921) from [14]. (c) Log-log plots of five data sets as indicated data from [4,9,[14][15][16]. See text.…”