Displacement-Limited Buckling of an Optical Fiber

Abstract

Buckling of an optical fiber within a confining connector housing is analyzed under the restriction that the transverse deflection profile be shallow. Fibers with pinned ends and with clamped ends are treated. The three stages of buckling are discussed: sufficiently small transverse displacements that contact is not made with the housing wall; point contact with the wall; and finite-length contact with the wall. Explicit expressions for responses as functions of relative longitudinal displacement of ends are obtained for the first and third stages. For the second stage, longitudinal displacement and maximum fiber curvature are expressed in terms of buckling load. Except for a portion of the point-contact stage, contact with a confining wall causes more severe stresses in the fiber than would otherwise be the case.