ملخص: In Saharian regions, the erosion of glass by sand particles during sandstorms is a regular phenomenon. The progressive loss of matter on surface affects both the optical transmission and mechanical strength. In this work, the influence of sand impacts on glass strength was simulated in laboratory. We used Weibull distribution function to characterize statistically the variation of the mechanical strength of a soda-lime glass in the as received state and eroded by sand blasting during 30 and 60 min. From the failure probabilities distributions, we notice an important drop in strength values (about 13%) after 30 min and a tendency to level out with a much reduced dispersion after 60 min. The Weibull plots for the as-received state and for the 30 min eroded state present curves with a knee. They were considered as bimodal forms (two straigth lines) denoting the presence of two kinds of defects that control strength. The Weibull plot for the 60 mins eroded state sample presents one straight line (unimodal form) that indicates the predominance of erosion defects. From micrographical observations on eroded specimen, we observed a tendency toward a damaging homogeneity of the surfaces exposed to sand blasting. This explains the uniformity of the strength values obtained after 1 h of sand blasting.

لغة: إنجليزية