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How Does Glass Break?
Member rating: No Rating | Words: | Submitted: Mon Dec 15 2003
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How Does Glass Break? Glass will break when it is under a stress that it cannot withstand. This stress can be caused by sudden impact, increasing pressure upon certain points of the glass, or by cracks developing in the glass' surface. How Do These Cracks Affect Glass? The strength of a piece of glass is impaired by tiny cracks, known as 'Griffith Cracks' on the surface of the glass. These Griffith cracks are very small, usually between 1µm to 1nm long (0.000,001 metres to 0.000,000,001 metres). These cracks distort the stress pattern within the glass' structure, from their normal (1.) to concentrating the stress in the area around the tip of the crack (2.). These cracks propagate through the glass, increasing the stress on an ever decreasing surface areas the crack gets deeper. As the stress at the tip of the glass increases, the bonds between the molecules at...
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