Effect of Etch Depth on Strength of Soda-Lime Glass Rods by a Statistical Approach

Hydrofluoric acid solution etching has long been known as a useful method for strengthening glass. In this way surface flaws are at first reduced in length and rounded then completely removed. At this point glass strength depends only on defects emerging from the bulk or on damage produced by the etching reaction products. In this study more than a hundred values of strength of glass rods, etched with hydrofluoric acid, are elaborated by means of a statistical approach, and attention is focused on what have previously been called 'volume defects'. The analysis allows some results about the stress concentration factor of this defects family to be obtained. © 1993.