Lifetime Prediction for Optical Glass Fibers.

摘要

The number of test samples used to characterize the crack propagation parameter N of glass and ceramic materials determines the confidence in failure predictions for these materials. A Monte Carlo simulation technique was used to study the effect of sample size on the statistical reproducibility of the fatigue constant N from dynamic fatigue data. It is shown that the statistical variability in N can be large especially for sample sizes of less than 100. It is recommended that before meaningful conclusion can be drawn regarding the effect of a test variable on N as measured from the dynamic fatigue experiment, the statistical reproducibility of N should be evaluated. (Author)