Study on optical fiber strain in tensile test of all-dry fiber optic cables

Chen Hao, Wang Yawen

FiberHome Telecommunication Technologies CO., Ltd

Wuhan, Hubei, P.R. China
[email protected]

Abstract the same time, all-dry loosetube fiber optic cables can effectively
reduce the weight of the cable and reduce the environmental
The traditional fiber optic cable contains gel in the loose tubes, pollution caused by consumables.
which is not easy to clean during the construction on site and leads At present, there are mainly three types of swellable water
to increase the difficulty of fiber optic fusion and the construction blocking material in loosetube: water-blocking powder, water-
costs. And what’s more, gel has the potential to pollute the blocking belt and water-blocking yarns. Considering cost and
environment. technology, more cable manufacturers choose water-blocking
All-dry fiber optic cable has the advantages of environmental yarn as water-blocking material in loosetube. Water-blocking
protection, low cost, light weight and easy construction. It is yarn contains a kind of superabsorbent resin (SAP), which swell
gradually replacing the conventional gel-filled fiber optic cable. rapidly when contacting with water. And preventing the further
At present, the major types of all-dry fiber optic cables are filled penetration and migration of water. In the process of loosetube
with water-blocking yarns in the loose tubes. In order to meet extrusion, water-blocking yarns enters the loosetube together with
the requirements of water blocking, manufacturers usually the optical fiber. According to the requirement of water blocking,
choose different linear densities and different quantities of one or more water-blocking yarns will be placed into one
water-blocking yarns. loosetube.
In this paper, in the tensile tests we study the fiber strain and There are many types of water-blocking yarns provided by
attenuation change of all-dry fiber optic cables which contain various material manufacturers, with different linear densities and
water-blocking yarns in various quantities and linear densities. water-resistant properties. Usually, the higher the linear density
of water-blocking yarns, the more water-absorbing resins coated
on the surface, and the cable has better water blocking
Keywords: All-dry fiber optic cable; water-blocking yarns; performance. However, whether different linear densities and
tensile test quantities of water-blocking yarns in loosetube will affect the
mechanical properties of optical cables has not been reported.
We study the fiber strain and attenuation change of all-dry fiber
1. Introduction optic cables in tensile test which contain different quantities
Outdoor optical cables are required to have the ability to prevent and/or different linear density water-blocking yarns.
water’s longitudinal penetration across the entire cable cross-
section. According to IEC 60794 -1-22-2012, with 1-meter-high
water column, 3-meter-long cable sample, cable connected to 2. Test and analysis
the lower outlet of water column with water-tight seal, no water 2.1 Sample preparation
should come out of the other end of the cable sample during the We design two kinds of GYFY-72 optical cable cable-A and cable-
following 24 hours. B, which both contain six coloured loosetubes: blue ,orange ,green,
In practical applications, more customers require cable sample brown , grey and white. The main difference between two optical
length should be 1m for the tests. Traditional gel-filled optical cables is the loosetube size. Loosetube size of cable-A: Outer
cables are still widely used by telecom operators, because the diameter 2.3 mm, inner diameter 1.6 mm; Loosetube size of cable-
gel in the loose tube can effectively block water, and also give a B: Outer diameter 2.8 mm, inner diameter 2.1mm. There are 12
coupling effect between loose tube and optical fiber. It is helpful optical fibers(G.652D) into each loosetube.
for the extrusion process technology and to control the excess We fill different types and quantities of water-blocking materials
length of optical fiber in loose tube. into different colors of loosetube. There are three main types of
However, there are also some drawbacks in the traditional gel- water-blocking materials. X-yarn linear density is 600 dtex, Y-yarn
filled optical cable. With the increasing number of optical fiber, linear density is 1100 dtex, and gel. Then we study the tensile
the traditional gel-filled optical cable needs to spend a lot of properties of cable-A and cable-B. Details of the distribution as
time in the gel- cleaning work. And cleaning the gel needs wipe follows: tube blue-- one X-yarn, tube orange-- two X-yarn, tube
paper, cleaning agent and other consumables which lead to a green-- one Y-yarn, tube brown--two Y-yarn, tube grey--nothing
certain degree of environment pollution. except optical fiber, tube white is filled with gel, as shown in Table
1:
With the development of technology, all-dry loosetube fiber optic
cables are widely used in indoor and outdoor areas. The
innovative dry water-blocking technology shortens the time Table 1 Composition table of water-blocking materials
required for cable installation preparation and fusion process. At in each loosetube
 water-blocking total linear density
color of loosetube
materials （dtex）
blue 1 X-yarn 600
orange 2 X-yarn 1200
green 1 Y-yarn 1100
brown 2 Y-yarn 2200
Grey nothing 0
White Gel 0

Six loosetube will be twisted into cable core and then over cable
core, PE jacket will be extruded without any other auxiliary
reinforcement components.
2.3 mm FRP is used for the central reinforcement of cable-A; 2.8
mm FRP is used for the central reinforcement of cable-B. In order
to ensure the accuracy of tensile test, we guarantee the same
production process with different materials.

Figure 2. Fiber strain diagram of cable-B

2.2 Test and Analysis
Fig.1 and Fig.2 show that the maximum tensile tension of cable-A
is 5200 N, the strain starting point of fiber is 2090N, and the
Based on the IEC 60794-1-21-2015 Method E1, the tensile test of maximum strain of fiber is 0.7% at 5200N. the maximum tensile
two optical cable samples with different linear-density water- tension of cable-B is 7000 N, the strain starting point of fiber is
blocking yarn was carried out.12 fibers were monitored by fused- 4800N, and the maximum strain of fiber is 0.4% at 7000N. The
fibre connection in tension test that two optical fibers were strain margin of the optical fibers in each loosetube are basically in
selected in each loosetube. According to the definition of IEC- the same area, and there is no significant difference.
60794, the total tolerance of measuring value of optical fiber strain
shall be ± 0.05 % strain. Any measured value within this range We choose 0.05% fiber strain as the starting point to record the
shall be considered as “no change in strain”. We set 0.05% as the tension of fiber optic cable. The specific data are as follows:
starting point of optical fiber strain.
The tensile strain of optical fibers is shown in the following figure: Table 2 Tension value for each toosetube of cable-A at
fiber strain of 0.05%
Total Average
Water- linear Fiber1 Fiber2 tensile
Color of
blocking
loosetube density （N) （N) force
materials
（dtex） （N)
blue 1 X-yarn 600 2280 2340 2310
orange 2 X-yarn 1200 2240 2245 2243
green 1 Y-yarn 1100 2450 2480 2465
brown 2 Y-yarn 2200 2090 2130 2110
grey Nothing 0 2560 2620 2590
white Gel 0 2540 2550 2545

Table 3: Tension value for each toosetube of cable-B at

fiber strain of 0.05%
Averag
Total
Water- e
Color of linear Fiber1( Fiber2(
blocking tensile
loosetube density( N) N)
Figure 1. Fiber strain diagram of cable-A materials force(
dtex)
N)
blue 1 X-yarn 600 5250 5250 5250
orange 2 X-yarn 1200 5100 5100 5100
green 1 Y-yarn 1100 5500 5500 5500
brown 2 Y-yarn 2200 4800 4800 4800
grey Nothing 0 4810 4810 4810
white Gel 0 4800 4800 4800

Table 4: Tension value for each toosetube at fiber strain

initiation
 Tensile force value each toosetube at fiber
strain initiation
5250 5500
6000 5100 4800 4810 4800

4000 2590 2545

2310 2243 2465 2110
2000

0
blue orange green brown grey white

cable-A cable-B

Figure 4. Optical attenuation changes of cable-B during

test
From the data in Table 2, Table 3 and Table 4, in cable-A, it can be
seen that the strain occurs earliest (at 2110N) in the brown Fig. 3 shows that when the strain of the optical fibers in loosetube
loosetube with highest-density water-blocking yarn. The latest of cable-A reaches 0.6%, there is a significant difference in
strain-occurring loose tube is the brown one without gel and yarn attenuation changes of the optical fibers. The white tube with only
(at 2590N). Strain occurs in the white loose tube with only gel at gel has the lowest attenuation change, 0.002dB. The highest
2545N. The green tube with 1100dtex yarn gets the fiber strain at attenuation change of 0.438dB happens in the brown tube with the
2465N, similar to the white one. From the data analysis, the highest density of the water-blocking yarn. It can be seen from fig.
difference between the maximum and minimum strain-occurring 3 that with the increase of linear density of the water-blocking yarn
tension is 480N. in the loosetube, the attenuation change increases obviously.
In cable-B, the earliest strain occurring happens in optical fibers of However, the attenuation changes of green tube with 1100
the brown, grey and white tubes, all at 4800N. The latest strain dtex water-blocking yarn is 0.433 dB, which is almost equal to that
occurring happens in the green tube at 5500 N. From the data of the brown tube with 2200 dtex linear density. This shows that the
analysis, the difference between the maximum and minimum increasing trend will be weakened when the linear density of water-
strain-occurring tension is 700N. blocking yarn increases to a certain extent.
To sum up based on the above date, the strain-occurring point of Fig. 4 shows the additional attenuation during cable-B test. The
optical fiber has no obvious relationship with the linear density of maximum strain of the optical fiber in loosetube is 0.4%, but the
water-blocking yarn and the aramid quantity; The strain-occurring optical power value of the optical fiber does not show obvious
tension value also has no obvious relationship with linear density additional attenuation, and the highest attenuation change is
of optical fiber, but more with the excess length of optical fiber in 0.01dB which falls within the reasonable tolerance range
the loose tube, tube size and others. according to the definition of IEC-60794-1-20-2014, so it shall be
considered as “no change in attenuation”.
Then we look at the attenuation change diagram of two cable
samples as follows: We analyze the reasons for the above-mentioned situation: when
the space inside loosetube is small, it limits the independent
moving of the optical fiber and the water-blocking yarn. When the
optical fiber suffers strain, the stress caused by the move of optical
fiber and yarn will increase the attenuation. The bigger the linear
density of yarn, the bigger the contact stress area from yarn to
optical fiber, the higher the additional attenuation will increase.
But when the yarn density increases to a certain point, the contact
stress area will not increase, the additional attenuation will
increase slowly.
When the inner space of loosetube is large, the yarn and optical
fibers can move independently and freely, the additional
attenuation will not go up obviously.

3. Conclusion
1. The strain-occurring point of optical fibers has no obvious
relationship with the linear density of water-blocking yarn and the
aramid quantity; The strain-occurring tension value also has no
obvious relationship with linear density of optical fiber, but more
with the excess length of optical fiber in the loose tube, tube size
Figure 3. Optical attenuation changes of cable-A during and others.
test 2. when the space inside loosetube is small, it limits the
independent moving of the optical fiber and the water-blocking
yarn. When the optical fiber suffers strain, the stress caused by the
move of optical fiber and yarn will increase the attenuation. The
bigger the linear density of yarn, the bigger the contact stress area
from yarn to optical fiber, the higher the additional attenuation
will increase. But when the yarn density increases to a certain
point, the contact stress area will not increase, the additional
attenuation will increase slowly.
3. When the inner space of loosetube is large, the yarn and optical
fibers can move independently and freely in the enough space, the
additional attenuation will not go up obviously.
4. In the design of all-dry fiber optic cables, we need to consider
many aspects comprehensively, not only to meet the requirements
of water penetration, but also to consider the requirements of
optical fiber strain and optical attenuation changes, so that the
comprehensive performance of optical cables can meet the
requirements of use.

References
[1] IEC 60794-1-21-2015
[2] IEC 60794 -1-22-2012

Author

Chen Hao, graduated from Wuhan University of Technology in

2009 with a Master's degree with a major in material science. He
entered Fiberhome Communications Technology Co., Ltd. in
which working in R&D Department . His direction of work is
outdoor optical cable product development.

Wang Yawen, got master's degree from Wuhan University in 2018

with a major in analytical chemistry, entered Fiberhome
Communications Technology Co., Ltd.in the same year, the key
area of work is the research of new materials and optical cable
products.