Fast stress relaxation at the surface of silica glass : mechanism and effects

Abstract

As an alternative to the relaxation of stress, other authors proposed a mechanism of surface swelling in order to explain the strengthening of fibers in which water diffusion accelerated by tensile stress causes the glass surface to swell and leads to a compressive stress at the surface of the glass which causes it to become stronger. This mechanism can be ruled out on the basis of the occurrence of stress relaxation in shear.