Fiber optics structural mechanics

In fiber-optics engineering, the areas of materials and manufacturing, including materials development, processing, and long-term reliability, are well established, and the body of published work in these areas is enormous. The situation is different in fiber-optics mechanics. This can be defined as the application of methods of Engineering Mechanics and Structural Analysis to stress-strain evaluations and physical design of fiber-optics systems. Although the ability to design a viable and reliable fiber-optics structure is of obvious practical importance, the amount of publications in this field is relatively small. In this review, which is based primarily on the author's research, the following problems of the mechanical behavior of bare and coated optical fibers, experiencing thermally induced and/or mechanical loading, are addressed: low temperature microbending; mechanical approach to the evaluation of low temperature threshold of added transmission losses; bending of coated fibers, including those in termination fixtures: mechanical aspects of different types of proof-testing; and the effects of the nonlinear stress-strain relationship in silica materials on elastic stability, free vibrations, and bending of optical fibers and lightwave couplers. It is concluded that application of methods of Structural Mechanics enables one to better understand the mechanical behavior of fiber optics systems and to design a structure of high mechanical and optical performance.