Carbon-Carbon Joining Technology for Space Structure Thermal Management

The work proposed here addresses key challenges to the development of brazed carbon-carbon joints for space structure thermal management applications. Interlayer materials are sought which will minimize thermal resistance across brazed joints, maintain good shear strength characteristics, have low residual stress states, and be applicable to the joining of very thin carbon-carbon panel components currently proposed for radiators and heat transfer devices. Proposed tasks include a systems survey to define near-term candidate commercial applications and their joining requirements, selection of appropriate interlayer materials for specific applications, prediction of multiphase microstructure which may form in interlayer materials after the joining operation, properties and performance characteristics of the product joints through mathematical modeling, and fabrication and testing of promising brazed joint concepts. The project will be performed with the engineering and technical assistance of Hughes Space and Communications Group and Wright State University.