Stress corrosion of silicate glass: a review

In the first section of the present paper, some examples, from the field, of the manifestations or consequences of the fatigue of silicate glass are briefly presented. In the second section, the interpretation of fatigue in terms of stress corrosion is reviewed: the role of ambient molecular water is well established. Whatever the details of the mechanism of action of water, it takes place very efficiently in the highly strained material close to the tip of a surface crack. This enables its sub-critical growth to be explained. But it does not explain many other observed effects of the environment on the mechanical behavior of silicate glass, and, in the last section, questions and issues are presented, which would still need to be investigated.