C/C-SiC Materials with Unidirectional Reinforcement

Abstract

Fabric reinforced CMC materials show high stiffness, high temperature resistance, low thermal expansion coefficient and a low specific weight. The fabric reinforcement entails nearly isotropic material properties in the plan direction. To enlarge the strength in a certain direction of anisotropic load, the use of unidirectional reinforcement is necessary. According to the standard of knowledge, reinforcement with pure standard UD material is not possible if the CMC is to be produced by the LSI (Liquid Silicon Infiltration) process. For a wide industrial use of unidirectional reinforced CMC materials, low process costs and short cycle times are fundamental key factors. Comparing different production methods like LSI, LPI or CVI, these requirements can only be fulfilled by the LSI process. The target of the work was to show that unidirectional reinforced CMC (Ceramic Matrix Composites) are processable in different manufacturing methods via the LSI process. The results of the material inspection of representative samples will be presented.