Research Progress on Preforms of C/C Composites

Abstract

Carbon/carbon (C/C) composites are important fundamental thermal-structure materials in aeronautic and astronautic fields. One of the most primary basic technologies of C/C composites is the manufacture of carbon fiber preforms which determines the performances of C/C composites. In this paper, the preforms including needle-punched felt, fine weave pierced and axial carbon rod weave fabric are introduced, and the process, properties and applications of those preforms are compared. Due to the low cost and homogeneous ablation, needle-punched felt preforms are extensively used in solid rocket motor nozzle and aircraft brake disc. Fine weave pierced preforms are applied in SRM because of high fiber volume content, short densification cycle and low ablative rate. With the excellent ablative rate attributed to more than 70% fiber perpendicular to the gas flow direction, axial carbon rod weave fabric is used in large SRM. For the domestic research status of preforms, it is suggested that the research involving the effect of pore structure and fiber distribution on mechanical, thermal physics properties and the subsequent densification of C/C composites should be further enhanced in order to promote the performance of C/C composite material.

Keywords

• preform
• needle-punched felt
• fine weave pierced fabric
• axial carbon rod weave fabric
• C/C composites