Abstract
To study the effects of electron beam (EB) irradiation on the bending stress-strain curves for soda glass, we measured these curves by a standard bending test. EB irradiation enhanced bending fracture stress and rigidity of the glass, and also extended the crack length of a homogeneously fractured sample. When the EB irradiation generated dangling bonds at the weaker-bonded metal-oxygen atomic pairs in the soda glass network structure, partial relaxation occurred at points of residual strain in the network structure. Evidently the increased rigidity was mainly due to an increase in the bonding energy for the silicon-oxygen atomic pairs in the atomic network structure. The irradiation also eliminated the crack origin points in the homogeneously fractured soda glass, thus inducing a high fracture stress.
