CARBON-CARBON

COMPOSITES
What is a composite?
It is a combination of two or more similar or dissimilar metals to form a
new one which is designed for some particular applications.

Carbon-Carbon composite:
It is also known as Carbon fiber reinforced carbon matrix
composite. These are the composites which are manufactured by reinforcing
the carbon fibers into the matrix of carbon material. These matrices may be
resin materials such as epoxy.

Processing technique:
The carbon fibers are mainly synthesized from two different sources
such as Polyacrylonitrile (PAN) and Pitch. These are known as precursors.
Polyacrylonitrile is a semi crystalline organic polymer resin. Pitch is a
viscoelastic solid polymer. The carbon fibers can be synthesized from the
Polyacrylonitrile in three stages. They are
1. Stabilization
2. Carbonization
3. Graphitization
STABILISATION:In this stage of production the PAN fibers are initially spun and they are
stretched in such a way that the network of the fibers is aligned parallel to
the fiber axis. And then these fibers are oxidized at a temperature of about
2000C to 2200C while held in tension.
CARBONISATION:In carbonisation process the stabilized PAN fibers undergoes pyrolysis
(heat treatment) at 10000C to 15000C to remove Oxygen, Hydrogen and
Nitrogen from the precursor fiber such that the final material will be mostly
comprised of carbon. The carbon fibers obtained through this stage will
possess very high tensile strength. During this process graphite like
ribbons are formed which are responsible for the high tensile strength of the
fiber.

GRAPHITISATION:If the carbon fiber requires more stiffness than tensile strength then
the carbon fibers undergo this stage. In this stage elastic modulus of the
fiber is increased at the expense of tensile strength. In graphitization the
carbon fiber network is heated at 18000C such that graphite crystallites are
formed inside the fiber as a result high stiffness can be achieved by the
increase in the modulus of elasticity.
The carbon fibers obtained through this process will possess a density
of 1.7 gCm-3 2.1 gCm-3 with a diameter of 7m 10m. The elastic modulus
will be 193 GPa 241 GPa. In this way the carbon fibers are manufactured
from PAN precursor. Finally these fibers are reinforced into the carbon matrix
(epoxy resins) to obtain Carbon-Carbon composites.

Properties:- It has numerous properties such as

Light weight.
Very high tensile strength.
High strength.
Very high stiffness.
High thermal conductivity and operates at very high
temperatures of 28000C.
Low coefficient of thermal expansion.
It is thermal shock resistant.
Resistance to creep and large fracture toughness.

Drawbacks:

High propensity to high temperature oxidation.

Very high in cost.

APPLICATIONS:These different properties of carbon-carbon composites make them

attractive for the aerospace applications. Such as
These are employed in rocket motors and ablative shields for reentry vehicles.
These are used in aircraft brakes and advanced turbine engines.
These are used in brake pads of racing cars.
Boeing 787 fuselage is manufactured with Carbon-Carbon
composite and comprises half weight of Boeing 787.