Al. Yarin, SURFACE-TENSION-DRIVEN FLOWS AT LOW-REYNOLDS-NUMBER ARISING IN OPTOELECTRONIC TECHNOLOGY, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 286, 1995, pp. 173-200
Some methods of formation of preforms for drawing of polarization-main
taining optical fibres are based on utilization of the surface tension
of glass in the liquid state. Under the action of surface tension non
-circular glass articles begin to flow, which results in formation of
an anisotropic internal structure of the preforms. The hydrodynamic an
alysis of two such methods is given in the paper. Analytical solutions
of the Stokes equations with linearized boundary conditions for the c
orresponding creeping surface-tension-driven flows of liquid glass are
obtained. By means of these solutions a processing strategy may be pr
edetermined with a view to a specific internal structure of the fibre,
as well as to the required value of birefringence. The theoretical re
sults are compared with experimental data and agreement is fairly good
.