Tape-Wrapped Carbon / Silicon Carbide Composites for Launch Vehicle Applications

To ensure continued access to orbit for United States government and commercial payloads, attractive replacement candidates for foreign-made propulsion components must be identified and the associated technology matured. The innovation proposed herein will identify and further maturation of a domestically available, oxidation-resistant, high-temperature C/SiC material candidate for launch vehicle applications. Materials Research and Design, Inc. (MR&D) will leverage lessons-learned from an ongoing Air Force Space & Missile Systems Center effort to explore the feasibility of a tape-wrapped preceramic polymer-derived C/SiC (designated 16A, manufactured by Allcomp, Inc.) for liquid thrust chamber applications. A combined analytical and experimental program is proposed, during which manufacturing demonstration cylinders will be fabricated and ultimately, evaluated mechanically using the ring tension facility available at Southern Research. MR&D will perform preliminary optimization of thrust chamber designs at both the full scale and sub-scale level, laying the groundwork for prototype fabrication during a Phase II program. A successful Phase I program will establish feasibility through fabrication of cylindrical demonstration articles and subsequent strength testing; thermal-structural feasibility will be established through finite element analyses of the C/SiC material in relevant manufacturing and operational environments.