Development of Low Cost Needled C/SiC for TDACS Applications

This proposal is submitted under topic MD05-066 and addresses the development of low cost, needled C/SiC for throttleable divert and altitude control systems (TDACS). The TDACS is being developed to guide the kinetic weapon of the Navy's Standard Missile-3 to the target. The throttleable solid rocket motor technology embodied in the TDACS increases the range, standoff distance, and engagement area of SM-3. A TDACS motor, which has been successfully ground tested by Aerojet, employed nee-dled C/SiC composites from General Electric Power Systems (GEPS) for some of the hot struc-tural components. While the GEPS components performed well structurally the material is time consuming and expensive to produce for two reasons. First the needled carbon fiber preforms are purchased from France, and second GEPS uses a dedicated furnace run to fabricate the com-posites. Furthermore, because the French-supplied needled preform is not optimized for the TDACS application, the performance and reliability of the needled C/SiC components can be improved if the material is designed based upon the requirements of the TDACS motor. This Phase I proposal seeks to 1) provide an alternate, inexpensive domestic source for needled C/SiC, and 2) design the composite so it exhibits properties that optimize its perform-ance in the TDACS application. The material will employ needled carbon fiber preforms manu-factured by Textile Engineering and Manufacturing (TEAM) in Slatersville, RI. The composites will be densified by Goodrich-Supertemp in Santa Fe Springs, CA leveraging their CMC produc-tion furnaces. The material design will be developed by Materials Research & Design (MR&D) using a combination of micromechanical and thermostructural models to audition needled C/SiC composites. The goal of the Phase I effort is to develop an improved, inexpensive, domestic source of needled C/SiC composites for TDACS applications. The program will be undertaken by a work-ing group of MR&D, TEAM, Goodrich, and Southern Research Institute (SoRI). MR&D will design and analyze the structures, TEAM will fabricate needled carbon fiber preforms, Goodrich will densify the C/SiC composites, and SoRI will measure the critical properties. The feasibility of the Phase I effort will be demonstrated by comparing the measured properties to the design goals.