Experimental and numerical analysis of thermal forming processes for precision optics

Glass has been fabricated into different optical elements including aspherical lenses and freeform mirrors. However, aspherical lenses are very difficult to manufacture using traditional methods since they were specially developed for spherical lenses. On the other hand, large size mirrors are also difficult to make especially for high precision applications or if designed with complicated shapes. Recently developed two closely related thermal forming processes, i.e. compression molding and thermal slumping, have emerged as two promising methods for manufacturing aspherical lenses and freeform mirrors efficiently. Compression molding has already been used in industry to fabricate consumer products such as the lenses for digital cameras, while thermal slumping has been aggressively tested to create x-ray mirrors for space-based telescopes as well as solar panels. Although both process showed great potentials, there are a quite few technical challenges that prevent them from being readily implemented in industry for high volume production.;This dissertation research seeks a fundamental understanding of the thermal forming processes for both precision glass lenses and freeform mirrors by using a combined experimental, analytical and numerical modeling approach. First, a finite element method (FEM) based methodology was presented to predict the refractive index change of glass material occurred during cooling. The FEM prediction was then validated using experimental results. Second, experiments were also conducted on glass samples with different cooling rates to study the refractive index variation caused by non-uniform cooling. A Shack-Hartmann Sensor (SHS) test setup was built to measure the index variations of thermally treated glass samples. Again, an FEM simulation model was developed to predict the refractive index variation. The prediction was compared with the experimental result, and the effects of different parameters were evaluated.;In the last phase of this dissertation research, an FEM simulation model was developed to study the thin glass slumping processes on both concave and convex mandrels. Simulation of thin glass sheet slumping on convex mandrel was performed to study the effects of different process parameters, i.e. thickness of the glass sheet, cooling and heating rate, soaking time and soaking temperature. Finally, experiments of thermal slumping glass plates on a parabolic concave mandrel were performed to study the thickness effect on slumping process and the final surface contour of the upper surface of the glass plate. Simulation was again conducted to predict the surface contour. The comparison between simulation and experiments showed that the FEM simulation is adequate for predicting the surface contour if the glass was fully slumped. It was also discovered that for process conditions used, thinner glass sheets were not fully slumped.