Stress Corrosion in Silica Optical Fibers: Review of Fatigue Testing Procedures

Irina Severin (1) , Claudia Borda (1) , Alexandru Dumitrache-Rujinski (1) , Mihai Caramihai (1) , Rochdi El Abdi (2)

1 UPB - University Politehnica of Bucharest [Romania]
2 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes

The expected lifetime of optical fibers used either in telecommunication technologies or smart applications are closely related to the chemical reaction on the silica network. Due to the manufacturing processes or the handling procedures, the flaws spread on the fiber surface are inherently present. The aging mechanism is assumed to enlarge or to extend these flaws. Based on systematic experiments one may notice that water may induce a certain curing effect. Silica optical fibers have been aged in water; series of samples have been subjected to overlapped stretching or bending. Other series have been subjected to overlapped aging effect of microwaves and hot water. Finally, samples were submitted to dynamic tensile testing. The Weibull's diagram analysis shows mono or bimodal dispersions of flaws on the fiber surface, but the polymer coating appears vital for fiber lifetime. While humidity usually affects the fiber strength, the series of testing has revealed that in controlled conditions of chemical environment and controlled applied stress, fiber strength may be increased. A similar effect may be obtained by external factors such as microwaves or previous elongation, too.

Domains: Physics [physics]

Irina Severin, Claudia Borda, Alexandru Dumitrache-Rujinski, Mihai Caramihai, Rochdi El Abdi. Stress Corrosion in Silica Optical Fibers: Review of Fatigue Testing Procedures. INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON STRUCTURAL ANALYSIS OF ADVANCED MATERIALS: ICSAAM 2017, Sep 2017, Bucharest, Romania. ⟨10.1063/1.5024187⟩. ⟨hal-01875422⟩