Novel Filament Design for Enhanced Fibrous Monolith Properties

"Advanced Ceramics Research, Inc. (ACR) proposes to design and develop novel micro-filament composite structures for fabrication of improved thermal shock and damage tolerant small diameter propulsion components. These parts are typically wound uniaxially,which allows only one plane of crack deflection using conventional FM filament. ACR will conduct a study to evaluate the material properties of ZrC-based fibrous monolith composites using a cable-like design, similar to suspension cables for bridges. ACRhas obtained a significant amount of baseline data for other ZrC-based systems of a conventional FM design for comparison with the designs to be developed on this proposed effort. The effort will focus on evaluating two critical design parameters andestablishing their influence on composite mechanical properties. These parameters are the ratio of core bundle to winding, and the solids loading of the winding filament. Test coupons with different design parameters will be fabricated, and mechanicalproperty will be collected and evaluated for each design. Sample single filament orientation parts will be made using the most promising design and compared with parts made from conventional FM filament. Testing results will be documented andrecommendations made with respect to designs and additional material systems that warrant further investigation. Small propulsion parts made from conventional FM filament typically have a single fi