Through Thickness Reinforcement of Tubular and Conical Preforms for Hot Structure Applications

TEAM, Inc. proposes to advance the state of the art of C-C material systems and preforming methods for use in hot structure applications.nbsp; A program with parallel Testing and Process Development tracks is planned:nbsp;Testing Program:The carbon-phenolic material system from Phase I will be replaced with C-C and C-C/SiC matrix in Phase II.nbsp; (densification sub-contractor Exothermics.)nbsp; The flat panel testing from Phase I will be repeated to understand in-plane and through thickness property trade-offs between stitched and un-stitched variants, as well as between C-C and C-C/SiC variants.nbsp; Qty 2 net shape converging / diverging nozzle components (stitched vs. un-stitched) will be provided for hot fire testing by Aerojet Rocketdyne.Process Development:nbsp; We will use ldquo;off-the-shelfrdquo; braiding technology, coupled with our custom z-stitching line, to produce net shape converging-diverging nozzle preforms with through thickness reinforcement.nbsp; The semi-automated z-fiber stitching line from Phase I will be re-designed to introduce full automation, resulting in a repeatable and robust process.nbsp; The Phase II converging / diverging nozzle will be designed to fit the sub-scale test rig at Aerojet Rocketdynersquo;s Orange, VA facility.nbsp; It will also serve to demonstrate versatility of the proposed braiding / stitching processes to handle geometric complexity.nbsp;The advantage of the proposed approach is that both the braiding process and the stitching work cell are easily scalable in terms of part size and geometry.nbsp; Z-axis issues with legacy tape-lay approaches are addressed by the stitching process.nbsp; nbsp;Cost / capacity / geometric constraint issues with legacy Cartesian / Polar billet approaches are addressed by versatility of the braiding and z-stitching processes.