Prediction of optical fiber coating thickness

A. Panoliaskos, W. L. H. Hallett, and 1.Garis

A simple analysis of the fluid dynamics of the optical fiber coating process is used to predict the resulting
coating thickness as a function of draw velocity, coating cup pressure, and resin viscosity for a cylindrical
coating die. The effects of surface tension forces and viscous heating are assessed. The analysis is com-
pared to experimental data and found to give good predictions.

1. Introduction problem of flow in a wire coating die has been analyzed

The demand for higher production rates in optical by Mitsoulis7 for both Newtonian and non-Newtonian
fiber manufacturing is leading to the use of pressurized fluids using the finite element method.
coating cups to allow the rate of application of the 11. Analysis
coating resin to keep pace with higher drawing veloci-
ties. For die design and production control it is desir- A simple analysis, similar to that of Chida et al. ,5 will
able to be able to predict the effects of draw velocity and now be developed to predict the coating thickness
cup pressure on the coating thickness. This paper ex- produced by a cylindrical nozzleof radius R and length
amines the fluid mechanics of the fiber coating process, L, through which a fiber of radius kR passes at velocity
reviewing previous work and assessing the importance V (Fig. 1). The effects of flow in the cup preceding the
of effects such as surface tension forces and viscous nozzle may be neglected if the nozzle flow can be as-
heating. The results of a simple analysis are compared sumed fully developed. This is the case if L is much
to experiment. greater than the entrance length Le required for flow
Several analyses of the coating process appear in the development, given for an annulus with k = 0.4 as8
published literature. For an unpressurized cup, France Le = 0.0119R( - k)Re. (1)
and Dunn1 assume that the hydrostatic pressure of
liquid in the cup is balanced by the surface tension force Here the Reynolds number, Re, is defined as
at the nozzle exit, leading to the prediction that the Re = 2VR(l - W), (2)
coating thickness depends only on the die geometry.
Paek and Schroeder 23
analyze the flow in a conical where p is the fluid density and bt is the dynamic vis-
nozzle and estimate the pressure exerted by surface cosity. A typical coating flow has Re < 1 (laminar flow)
tension by assuming an exponential form for the free and LeIR < 0.01. The fluid is assumed to have constant
surface of the liquid leaving the die. Torza4 models the properties, and surface tension forces and viscous
coating process as the withdrawal of a cylinder from a heating will be neglected. These assumptions reduce
bath of fluid; the coating thickness is thus assumed to the Navier-Stokes equations of fluid motion to a balance
depend only on surface tension effects. Chida et al. 5 between pressure and viscous shear:
present an analysis for a pressurized cup, which predicts
an inverse dependence of coating thickness on draw
Lp
L rr~
r-and
od &rI
____- (3)
speed; this is confirmed by their experimental results where x and r are the axial and radial coordinates, u (r)
as well as those of Paek and Schroeder.6 The related is the local flow velocity, and Ap is the pressure differ-
ence between the cup and the nozzle exit (Ap > 0). The
boundary conditions are
r=R: u=0; (4)
I. Garis is with Northern Telecom Canada, Ltd., Optical Systems r=kR: u=V.
Division, 365 March Road, Kanata, Ontario K2K lXi; the other au- The solution for the velocity field is then
thors are with University of Ottawa, Department of Mechanical En-
gineering, Ottawa, Ontario KiN 6N5. -= 24[1-(r/R) 2
-(1-k 2
) ln(r/R)/lnkI + ln(r/R)/lnk, (5)
Received 21 March 1985. V
0003-6935/85/152309-04$02.00/0.
1985 Optical Society of America. where

1 August 1985 / Vol. 24, No. 15 / APPLIED OPTICS 2309

 The results of the analysis can now be used to assess
the importance of surface tension effects. The surface
tension force acting axially along the coating surface
downstream of the nozzle exit is
Fs = 27ra(kR + t), (12)
where a is the surface tension in N/m, and t here rep-
resents the wet coating thickness (q = 1). Acting in the
same direction is the viscous shear force at the nozzle
wall
Fv = 2'rRLrw, (13)
with rw = r at r = R. Since these are the only two
forces opposed to fluid motion, the relative importance
of surface tension is reflected in the ratio FSIFv. For
4) = 0, this becomes

Fs (k 2 -1) Ink 12 (14)

FV yL V 2 I
Fig. 1. Geometry of the fiber coating flow. which is of the order of 10-3 for the experimental con-
ditions described in the followingsection. Adding the
pressure term further decreases this ratio. Equation
= ApR2 /85 LV. (6) (14) thus shows that surface tension forces are only
significant at extremely low velocities. This conclusion
The viscous shear stress r(r) follows from may be further tested using the model of Paek and
T= -y
du Schroeder,2 which for conditions of the present exper-
dr iments predicts a back pressure due to surface tension
r ( -k 2 ) of the order of 100 Pa or 1 cm of liquid head. Such a
R2 rink rinki (7) small pressure difference can only affect the flow sig-
nificantly if it results in a large 4), which is only possible
The liquid volume flow rate Q is
for very small draw velocities.
(8) Internal heating by viscous dissipation can be sig-
kR nificant in flows with high viscosity and a strong de-
while the flow after curing must be pendence of viscosity on temperature, characteristics
shared by many coating flows and resins. Its impor-
Q = 7rV[(kR + t) 2 - (kR)2 ] tance can be estimated by writing the energy equation
=qQ, (9) for the flow:
where t is the cured coating thickness and q is the
loading factor or ratio of cured solid to liquid volume. pCu--
aT k a
~
IrI+s-
ax r ar ar) uar)
(aJu 2
(15)
Solving where k is the thermal conductivity and Cp is the spe-
t cific heat of the fluid. The rate of change of the average
R temperature T is defined as
- q[k 2 + (1 - k 2 )/2 nk] + k 2 "/2- k. (10) dT R T R
- = 27r u-rdr/27r Iurdr. (16)
For an unpressurized cup (4) - 0), the first term van- dx fkR ax J. hR

ishes, and the coating thickness becomes a function of If the flow is adiabatic, the conduction term in Eq. (15)
geometry alone, completely independent of V and . vanishes on integration, leaving
This agrees with earlier predictions and measure- diT 2wr R (&A2
ments.1-3 Pressurization introduces an inverse de- dx
-=
pCpQ f hR
I~~ ar-
an1
rdr. (17)
pendence on V and A [Eq. (6)], which is also supported
by experiment. 3 5 The analysis identifies the coefficient With the velocity profile of Eq. (5), this becomes
4)as the governingparameter rather than the individual dT 2p V I 442[(l - k4 ) nk + (1 - k 2 ) 2] - 1
variables pt, V, or Ap. A specified coating thickness can dx pCpR2 k4) nk + (1-k2)2]-k2 nk-(1 -2)/21
thus be achieved by any combination of operating
(18)
conditions that givesthe requisite 4). The contribution
of the pressure term is not significant for 4) < 0.1. For the experimental conditions of the next section,this
At high draw velocities a low shear stress at the fiber gives a temperature gradient of the order of 5000C/m,
surface is desirable to avoid damage to the fiber.6 From corresponding to a rise of -0.4 0C in the die. This is
Eq. (7) for r = kR, this stress vanishes if small, but it can be seen that substantially higher
drawing speeds or more viscous resins than used here
4, = [4k 2 nk + 2(1 - k 2)]-'. (11) could lead to significant viscous heating, making precise

2310 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 24, No. 15 / 1 August 1985


0 0.25 0.50 0.75
Fig. 2. Predicted and measured coating thickness, k = 0.3205.
0 0.25 f 0.50 0.75
Fig. 3. Predicted and measured coating thickness, k = 0.3472.
control of resin temperature difficult. It should also be
pointed out that the viscous heating effect will be con-
centrated near the nozzle wall, where shear rates are
highest and velocities lowest, so that substantially
higher local temperature changes and modifications of
the velocity profile are possible.
Ill. Experiments
To test the analytical model a series of fiber coating
experiments was performed. A single die pressurized
cup was used, equipped with a water jacket for tem-
perature control. The fiber diameter was 125 m, and
the draw speed V varied from 50 to 90 m/min. Two
different die diameters were used, giving k values of
0.3205 and 0.3472, while the nozzle length L was 800 ,um.
Laser devices were used to measure both bare and
coated fiber diameters. The cup pressure ranged from
34- to 70-kPa gauge and was measured to an accuracy
9
At %
0 k=0.3205
A k=0.3472 IP
6 -
3
25 50 75 100
V- m/min
Fig. 4. Measured fluctuations of coating thickness as a percentage
of the coating thickness.
of 1 kPa. The freshly drawn fiber was cooled by a
blower before entering the cup.
The properties of the coating resin are as follows:
= 5.3 kg/msec at 25 0C
= 1.9 kg/msec at 351C
= 0.35 kg/msec at 45 0C,
p = 1100 kg/M 3 at 25 0C,
= 0.0215 N/m at 25 0C,
Cp = 1.76 kJ/kg 0 C.
The resin temperature was varied from 25 0C to 450C,
which together with the velocities used gave a range of
Reynolds numbers from 0.05 to 0.83.
Figures 2 and 3 compare the results of experiments
to the predictions of Eq. (10). With few exceptions,the
experimental points lie within 3% of the predicted
coating thickness. The most likely source of the scatter
in the data lies in the strong temperature dependence
of the resin viscosity: a 1 0C error in the resin temper-
ature would cause a deviation of 10-15% in ,u or 4b. The
points which lie farthest from the theoretical line are
those recorded at the highest coating velocity; these are
specially marked. A possible explanation for this is
found in the sharp increase in the fluctuation of the
coating thickness at high velocity (Fig. 4). Other
workers 9 have observed the same behavior. Mitsoulis, 7
among others, has shown that the shear stress in a wire
coating die exhibits a singularity at the nozzle exit, in-
creasing by nearly an order of magnitude both at the
moving wire and at the nozzle wall. This could lead to
coating thickness fluctuations,particularly if the coating
resin exhibits non-Newtonian behavior at high shear
rates.9 It has been suggested3 that it is shear at the fiber
surface that is responsible for fluctuations, in which case
it should be possible to reduce the fluctuations by set-
ting the pressure parameter 4)to a value corresponding
to a low shear [Eq. (11)].
IV. Conclusions
Equation (10) predicts the fiber coating thickness to
within 3% for the range of coating conditions encoun-
1 August 1985 / Vol. 24, No. 15 / APPLIED OPTICS 2311
tered in the present experiments; the results of Chida
et al. 5 at higher pressures suggest that it should be valid
for a much wider range of conditions. The dimen-
sionless pressure coefficient 4) is shown to be the char-
acteristic parameter of the coating flow. Surface ten-
sion forces may be neglected in predicting coating
thickness, but viscous heating could be of importance
at high draw velocities. The origins of fluctuations in
the coating thickness require further investigation.
References
1. P. W. France and P. L. Dunn, "Optical Fiber Protection by Solu-
tion Plastic Coating," in Proceedings, Second European Confer-
ence on Optical Fiber Communication, (Societe des Electricibns,
des Electroniciens, et des Radioelectriciens, Paris, 1976), p. 177.
2. U. C. Paek and C. M. Schroeder, "Coating of Optical Fibers with
a Conical Shape Applicator," Fiber Integ. Opt. 2, 287 (1979).
Pattercontinuedfrompage2308
dispersion of the grating gives a spectral (cross-slit) resolution of 10 nm per
picture element (128 wavelengths total). At a typical height of 3000m, the
crosstrackspatial (along-slit)resolutionis -6 m per picture element. The total
ground swath width is 183m.
An electronic-equipmentrack provides power and synchronization signals
to the CCD array and the monochromator solenoids. An airborne magnetic
tape recorder stores data acquired during a flight. A computer controls the
instrument, the tape recorder, and the CCD readout. The computer also
controlsa status display,organizesthe data into the proper format for recording,
and performs preliminary data processing (dark current subtraction, offset
suppression, and gain correction). Data taken at each grating position are
placed on separate tape recorder tracks for easier retrieval and processing.
The spectrometer is timed to givea 10%overlap between successiveimages
alongthe track and to allowfor the integration-and-readout time of the CCD
detectors. To aid in correlatinginstrument data with the terrain, a 35-mmfilm
camera, on the same boresight as that of the spectrometer, takes photos in
synchronism with the instrument.
This work was done by Clayton C. LaBaw of Caltech for NASA's Jet Pro-
pulsion Laboratory. Refer to NPO-16072.
III
LIGHT
FROM
TERRAIN
Fig. 11. Designed for small size, this infrared imaging spectrometer
uses a folded telescope and passes the input and output of its mono-
chromator through a hole in the monochromator grating.
2312 APPLIED OPTICS / Vol. 24, No. 15 / 1 August 1985
3. U. C. Paek and C. M. Schroeder, "High Speed Coating of Optical
Fibers with UV Curable Materials at a Rate of Greater Than 5
m/sec," Appl. Opt. 20,4028 (1981).
4. S. Torza, "The Continuous Coating of Glass Fibers," J. Appl. Phys.
47,4017 (1976).
5. K. Chida, S. Sakaguchi, M. Wagatsuma, and T. Kimura, "High-
Speed Coating of Optical Fibers with Thermally Curable Silicone
Resin Using a Pressurized Die," Electron. Lett. 18, 713 (1982).
6. U. C. Paek and C. M. Schroeder, "High Strength in a Long Length
for Fibers Coated at a Speed of 5 m/s," IEEE/OSA J. Lightwave
Technol. LT-2, 354 (1984).
7. E. Mitsoulis, "Finite Element Analysis of Wire Coating," Polym.
Eng. Sci., to be published.
8. A. J. Ward-Smith, Internal Fluid Flow (Oxford U.P., London,
1980).
9. M. Wagatsuma, T. Kimura, Y. Shuto, and S. Yamakawa, "Optical
Fiber Coating Speed Prediction from Flow Properties of Coating
Materials," Electron. Lett. 18, 731 (1982).
Self-identifyingreflecting targets
A proposed scheme for target identification would require no radiation of
energyby the target itself. Instead, the target wouldalter a light beam reflected
from itself back to an interrogating station in a unique way. The interrogator
would then identify the target from its signature impressed on the returned
beam. The self-identifying target would be useful in surveying, navigation,
and remote monitoring (for example, of mountain-climbing parties).
The target woulduse a cube-cornermirror to reflect the collimatedlight beam
back to the interrogator,which might be on a passingairplane,for example. (A
cube-cornerreflectorreturns light alonga path parallelto the path of incidence,
and its reflectionis thereforeseen onlyby the interrogator.) The cubereflection
would be modulated to introduce a unique signature into the beam.
Mechanismsare proposed for impressinga signature on the reflected beam.
For example,if the cube corner is a solid transparent body and light is reflected
by total internal reflection from each face, a material of similar refractiveindex
could be brought within half a wavelength or less of one face and its distance
from that face varied to alter the degree of internal reflection. The material,
in the form of a plate or diaphragm, might be oscillated by a magnetic or pi-
ezoelectric actuator driven by a sinusoid of knownfrequency, a codedvoltage,
or current pulses (see Fig. 12). If a hollowcube corner with reflecting surface
is used, the reflection couldbe modulated by mechanically distorting one of
the faces.
CORNER-CUBE
REFLECTOR
(TARGET)
11 RE RS
IVY
PLAN VIEW OF NAVIGATIONTARGET
Fig. 12. Cube-corner reflector returns a parallel, slightly displaced
beam of light to an interrogating station. Pulses from the encoder/
driver modulate the reflection, thereby providing a coded optical
signal that can be used for target identification or navigation.
continuedonpage2334