Third-order elastic constants determination in soda–lime–silica glass by Brillouin scattering

Brillouin light scattering allows the measurement of sound velocity and elastic moduli in transparent materials. The ability to select a small scattering volume and to use specific scattering configurations gives important information about the gradient and anisotropy of mechanical properties. Brillouin experiments are often used to measure the second-order elastic constants. When a high accuracy in frequency measurements is achieved, Brillouin scattering may allow the determination of third-order elastic constants in pre-stressed media. Hence, Brillouin scattering provides in principle, a method for the analysis of stress fields in tempered glasses. In order to validate the technique, samples of float soda-lime–silica glass submitted to controlled stresses by four-point flexion were investigated. The results show the expected profile for the velocity of sound waves propagating in directions parallel and perpendicular to the surface of the samples, respectively. They allow the determination of several third-order elastic constants of the investigated glass. This technique was applied to several samples of tempered glass corresponding to different values of the surface stress. The main result is the observation of the expected general trend, namely, through the thickness of the sample, a parabolic variation of the sound velocity whose amplitude increases with the magnitude of the surface stress.