Effect of carbon fiber tow structure on ablative properties of carbon fiber/phenolic composites

Abstract

Carbon fiber reinforced carbon/phenolic composites were prepared by using phenolic resin as matrix, plain carbon cloth and short carbon fiber as reinforcing agent. The ablation resistance of the composite was studied by oxygen/acetylene ablation test. The bending property of the composite was characterized by electronic tensile testing machine. The ablation surface of the composite was observed by scanning electron microscope. The ablation performance of the composite was verified by solid rocket motor. The results show that the mass ablation rate of oxyacetylene in carbon/phenolic composites prepared with these two structural forms of carbon fibers as reinforcements has a positive correlation with the size of carbon fiber tow. The smaller the carbon fiber tow, the lower the mass ablation rate of carbon fiber. When the carbon fiber reinforcer is in the single filament state, the oxyacetylene mass ablation rate of the composite is the lowest, which is 0.046 g/s, and the influence of carbon fiber type and specification on the mass ablation rate of oxyacetylene becomes smaller. The experimental results of solid rocket motor show that the ablation erosion resistance of carbon fiber/phenolic composites in monofilament state is obviously better than that of bundle carbon fiber/phenolic composites.

Keywords

• carbon fiber tow
• composites
• phenolic
• quality ablation rate
• linear ablation rate