The material. Soda-lime glass is the glass of windows, bottles, and light bulbs, used in vast quantities, the commonest of them all. The name suggests its composition: 13-17% NaO (the "soda"), 5-10% CaO (the "lime") and 70-75% SiO2 (the "glass"). It has a low melting point, is easy to blow and mold, and it is cheap. It is optically clear unless impure, when it is typically green or brown. Windows today have to be flat and until 1950 that was not easy to do; now the float-glass process, solidifying glass on a bed of liquid tin, makes "plate" glass cheaply and quickly.
Composition
73% SiO2/1% Al2O3/17% Na2O/4% MgO/5% CaO
General properties
Density
Price
Mechanical properties
Young’s modulus
Yield strength (elastic limit)
Tensile strength
Elongation
Hardness—Vickers
Fatigue strength at 107 cycles
Fracture toughness
Thermal properties
Maximum service temperature Thermal conductor or insulator? Thermal conductivity Specific heat capacity Thermal expansion coefficient
Electrical properties
Electrical conductor or insulator? Electrical resistivity Dielectric constant Dissipation factor Dielectric strength
Glass is used in both practical and decorative ways.
Eco properties: material
Annual world production Reserves
Embodied energy, primary production CO2 footprint, primary production Water usage Eco-indicator
Eco properties: processing
Glass molding energy Glass molding CO2
Recycling
Embodied energy, recycling CO2 footprint, recycling Recycle fraction in current supply
Typical uses. Windows, bottles, containers, tubing, lamp bulbs, lenses and mirrors, bells, glazes on pottery and tiles.
