Rapid Manufacturing of Toughened Carbon Carbon Composites

Combining extraordinarily high specific strength and stiffness with extreme thermal stability, continuous fiber reinforced carbon fiber – carbon matrix (“C/C”) composites are often the best choice for hot structures in hypersonic vehicles. However, their use is limited by high manufacturing costs, long procurement cycle times, and, for shell TPS, poor interlaminar toughness. These limitations all derive from C/C manufacturing processes that require many cycles of impregnating the carbon fiber preform, each followed by high temperature thermal treatments in order to densify the C/C. TDA produces a high char yield resin that will reduce the number of densification cycles by at least half, greatly reducing the time and cost of the production process. The interlaminar toughness of 2D C/C will be improved though the use of a low-cost, rapid method for adding carbon fibers orthogonal to the plies, and constraining them to prevent flattening during curing and densification. Approved for Public Release | 20-MDA-10643 (3 Dec 20)