Infiltration mechanism and factors influencing carbon/carbon-Zr-Ti-C composites prepared by liquid metal infiltration

The effects of fibre architecture, reaction temperature and holding time on the infiltration performance of carbon/carbon (C/C)-Zr-Ti-C composites prepared by liquid metal infiltration were investigated. The results indicated that samples with a chopped-web needled preform and low initial density had a high final density. Increasing the reaction temperatures resulted in a decrease of the final density of samples. Additionally, increasing the initial holding time appeared to obviously result in a high final density, but its effectiveness was not obvious in later observations. An analysis of the infiltration kinetics and mechanisms indicated that the diffusivity of carbon in the carbide, the open-pore sizes and their distribution in C/C composites were the essential characteristics that controlled the height of infiltrating melts.