Energy Release in Isothermally Stretched Silicate Glass fibers

Abstract

Three types of silicate glass fibers are annealed, simultaneously stretched in the glass transition region for certain time lengths, then slowly cooled to room temperature under load, and subsequently scanned by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). During the DSC scanning, a broad exothermic peak (representing energy release) occurs in the stretched fibers well below the glass transition temperature, while it does not occur in the non‐stretched fibers. The peak indicates that mechanical stretching can result in an energy enhancement in the fibers. It also confirms that the energy released during reheating of the fibers formed using an industrial continuous fiber drawing process originates not only from thermal quenching but also from mechanical stretching. However, the mechanical stretching‐induced energy is much lower than the thermal hyperquenching‐induced energy in glass fibers. The effect of annealing temperature and time on the energy release behavior is discussed in terms of viscoelasticity.