Mechanical strength of silica fiber splices after exposure to extreme temperatures

Perry, Marcus and Niewczas, Pawel and Johnston, Michael and Cook, Kevin and Canning, John (2012) Mechanical strength of silica fiber splices after exposure to extreme temperatures. In: OFS2012 22nd International Conference on Optical Fiber Sensors. SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering..

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Abstract

By using a combination of type-I and regenerated gratings, the mechanical strength of optical fiber splices after exposure to temperatures over 1300 C was characterized. Splice strength was found to decrease with temperature with a secondorder polynomial dependence after exposure to environments hotter than 500 C. Splices exposed to temperatures above 1300 C were 80% more fragile than non-exposed splices. The lack of optical attenuation and the narrowing distribution of breaking strengths for higher temperatures suggest surface damage mechanisms, such as hydrolysis, play a key role in weakening post-heating and that damage mechanisms dominate over strengthening induced by crack melting.

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