Anisotropic optical properties and flow behaviour of mechanically deformed single-phase glass melts

Abstract

Starting from the stress-optical coefficient around and above Tg, the following effects are regarded in order to give a comprehensive picture of the structural response of various glass melts under flow conditions at various temperatures: anisotropy o f glass fibres, the flow birefringence and Maxwell constant of the melt directly and/or indirectly via frozen-in anisotropics by cooling the melt thermally stress-free under mechanical load. Some of the applied various rheological methods allow to study the Newtonian and non-Newtonian viscosity additionally to the birefringence. Four very different glass melts are investigated under these aspects: a potassium-calciumsilicate glass, a float glass, an alkali metasilicate glass and an alkali metaphosphate glass. The results show that there are significant differences in the specific birefringence and in the deviation from Newtonian flow behaviour depending on the special flow units of the glass types. The structure of these anisotropic glasses and melts extends from frozen-in deformations of the network to orientations of chain-like flow units depending on chemical composition, temperature, mechanical stress and deformation rate. Particularly, a close connection between the onset of the non-Newtonian flow behaviour and the alteration o f the specific birefringence was found at certain critical stresses.