Computable Tungsten Filaments

When you buy an incandescent light bulb, you never know how long it will burn. Its service life is limited mainly by microscopic cracks in the tungsten filament. A simulation model for materials reveals crack formation before and after the drawing process.

Ideally, light bulbs last for 42 days in continuous operation – or so the manufacturers would have us believe. But the reality is not quite so lustrous: Some light bulbs do not burn out for years, but others last only a few days. Fine cracks in the tungsten filament, which eventually cause it to break, preclude a more uniform product quality. This is a problem also faced by Osram and Philips, the world’s biggest light bulb manufacturers. The industry has so far relied on trial and error to improve the drawing process for the filament. Production processes can be enhanced more strategically by simulating the material behavior. Supported by researchers from the Fraunhofer Institute for Mechanics of Materials IWM, the manufacturers are investigating the cracks and the resultant difficulties when spiraling the wire. Osram project manager Bernd Eberhard is confident that “Once we have more insight into the composition and behavior of the filament, we will be able to optimize and standardize our production processes.”

With an average diameter of 40 micrometers depending on the type of lamp, the tungsten filament is only about half as thick as a human hair. To reach this diameter, the wire has to be pulled repeatedly through a wire-drawing die that stretches it lengthwise and makes it progressively thinner. Depending how often the process is repeated, it may acquire a varying number of longitudinal cracks. Splits of this kind form primarily during the first stages of the drawing process, when the wire is thinned from almost four millimeters to only 0.3. The fine cracks grow longer when the wire is stretched further to a diameter of as little as five micrometers. This fact can be attributed to the tension that remains in the wire after drawing out, as IWM project manager Holger Brehm and his predecessor Sabine Weygand have discovered. “We have already succeeded in mathematically describing the behavior of the wire and the cracks that form during and after the drawing-out process. For the first time ever, the tungsten filament can be monitored on the screen during the entire thinning-out process.”

Crack formation is being further investigated and other decisive factors are integrated in the model. One such factor is the friction between the wire and the wire-drawing die. High friction makes the metal hotter. The researchers are therefore currently integrating the temperature change during and after drawing into their simulation. “The drawn wire cools faster on its surface than on the inside,” Brehm summarizes the latest experimental findings. “Unfortunately, splits can occur during this process as well.”

source from www.azom.com

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