Optical fiber reliability results from the Biarritz field trial

Strength degradation of lightguide fibres in roomtemperature water

“…Their lack of detailed data caused Matthewson and Kurkjian [3] to question their conclusions. In addition, recently reported results from two field trials [4,5] suggest that room temperature degradation must be seriously considered. In this study, we have carried out aging tests in room temperature distilled water for times >10 years, and measured the time dependence of the strength determined in two-point bending.…”