Quality Assurance for the Manufacturing of Oxide Fiber Reinforced Ceramic Composites for Aerospace Applications

Kurzfassung

The processing route of a CMC material comprises several very complex manufacturing procedures which have to be optimized down to the last detail and, if necessary, monitored and controlled continuously. Consequently, non-destructive inspection techniques are important tools to provide the necessary information that is needed to understand the microstructure and to identify the failure-relevant defects that may occur during manufacturing. The examples discussed here are focusing the manufacturing and material properties of the wound highly porous oxide ceramic matrix composite (WHIPOX™) developed by DLR. It is reported about inspection results with air-coupled ultrasound, optically excited lock-in thermography, 3D terahertz imaging and computed tomography (µ-CT, nano-CT). Furthermore, mechanical properties of WHIPOX samples which are obtained from tensile and Iosipescu shear tests are correlated with non-destructive inspection results from lock-in thermography and high resolution CT analysis.