Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Stress
Microbending, due to microscopic fibre deformation, commonly caused by poor cable design
Microbending is commonly caused by poor cable design Macrobending is commonly caused by poor installation or handling
Core
Mode field
Rc =
4 n 12 n 2 2
3/ 2
Loss can be reduced by using larger refractive index differences For a given bend radius a larger NA will result in a lower Rc and thus lower loss While Rc is influenced by wavelength it is found that above Rc the loss is not a a strong function of wavelength (multimode fibre only)
Core
Core
Mode field
Mode field
x Mac#
dB/m
The Mac# (Macrobending Number) is a function of the MFR and the "effective fibre cutoff wavelength ce":
Mac# = 2 x MFR
ce
Microbending in Fibres
Microbending in Fibres More critical than macrobending Due to processing rather than mishandling. Loss can occur due to distortion of the core cladding interface, induced by manufacture or poor cable design
Fibre Reliability
Fibre is intrinsically very reliable in a benign environment Few documented failure mechanisms Most failures are caused by poor cable choice, poor installation or accidental damage Intrinsic tensile fibre strength exceeds that of an equivalent steel wire
Fibre Reliability
Theoretical strength is 20 GPa (2,900,000 Psi) Due to surface defects such as cracks strength in practice is much lower, typically 5 GPa (725 kPsi)
Failure occurs when under stress a crack grows to some critical dimension Crack growth is depended on the so-called fatigue susceptibility parameter, "n" Larger values of n mean faster crack growth, shorter lifetime Stress accelerates crack growth
Moisture and high temperatures also accelerate crack growth and reduce lifetime
tf =
As
-n
A is constant and n is the fatigue susceptibility parameter (15 to 50 for glass, typically 20) As stress grows the time to failure drops rapidly Problem: For n = 20 develop an argument to show that a stress "s" applied for 1 second is equivalent to a stress of 0.35s applied for 40 years
Smooth area near flaw were crack propagated quickly but cleanly Jagged area were fibre failed completely
2.3 micron
30 Years
0.7 micron
Higher proof test stress means longer lifetime But higher stress means more fibres are rejected, lower yield/higher cost Lifetimes assume no moisture ingress and normal temperatures
At 90 degrees centigrade the fatigue susceptibility parameter is significantly higher than that at 25 degrees Fibre strength decreases by 25% at 90 degrees compared to 25 degrees High tensile strength and zero moisture ingress cables are essential at elevated temperatures