Low Cost 3-D (Multi-D) Carbon-Carbon for Missile Applications

Throat inserts and nose tips are essential and critical components of all missile systems. Historically, high density (minimum density of 1.9 g/cc), high performance Carbon-Carbon (C-C) composites, reinforced by multi-directional (Multi-D) carbon fiber preforms have been selected as the preferred materials for these applications.Different types of multi-D fiber preform construction have been developed through the years and various grades of C-C with varying unit cell sizes have been manufactured and qualified for different applications, both in the US and abroad since the 1970s.While all those C-C materials meet the performance requirements, they are expensive and generally require long processing time. The objective of the proposed effort is to develop a new generation of C-C composites using advanced fiber preform architectures that are easy to construct and also easy to densify. These preforms will be further processed using advanced densification processes to reach the desirable high density quickly thus at reduced cost.