• Carbon letters
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• v.12 no.4
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• pp.249-251
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• 2011

Carbon/epoxy woven composites are prominent wear-resistant materials due to the strength, stiffness, and thermal conductivity of carbon fabric. In this study, the effect of oilabsorption on the wear behaviors of carbon/epoxy woven composites was investigated. Wear tests were performed on dry and fully oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites. The worn surfaces of the test specimens were examined via scanning electron microscopy to investigate the wear mechanisms of oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites. It was found that the oil absorption rate was 0.14% when the carbon/epoxy woven composites were fully saturated. In addition, the wear properties of the carbon/epoxy woven composites were found to be affected by oilabsorption. Specifically, the friction coefficients of dry and oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites were 0.25-0.30 and 0.55-0.6, respectively. The wear loss of the oilabsorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites was $3.52{\times}10^{-2}\;cm^3$, while that of the dry carbon/epoxy woven composites was $3.52{\times}10^{-2}\;cm^3$. SEM results revealed that the higher friction coefficient and wear loss of the oil-absorbed carbon/epoxy woven composites can be attributed to the existence of broken and randomly dispersed fibers due to the weak adhesion forces between the carbon fibers and the epoxy matrix.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.6-14
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• 2005

The study of mechanical properties and fracture behaviour of carbon/carbon composites is significant to its application and development. These are dependent on microstructure and properties of reinforcing fibers and matrix, fiber/matrix interface and porosity/cracks present in the composites. In the present studies high-density carbon/carbon composites have been prepared using PAN and various pitch based carbon fibers as reinforcements and pitch as matrix with repeated densification cycles using high-pressure impregnation and carbonization technique. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to study the fracture behaviour of the highly dense composites and correlated with structure of the composites. The geometry of reinforcement and presence of unfilled voids/cracks was found to influence the path of crack propagation and thereby the strength of composites. The type of stresses (tensile or compressive) accumulated also plays an important role in fracture of composites.

• Carbon letters
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2004

Chop molding composites and 2D carbon/carbon composites were manufactured by hot press molding method. Phenol resin of novolac type was used for matrix precursor and PAN-based carbon, PAN-based graphite and pitch-based carbon fiber were used for reinforcement and boron oxide was used for oxidation retardant. All of the composites were treated by $2000^{\circ}C$ and $2400^{\circ}C$ graphitization process, respectively. After graphitization process, amount of a boron residue in carbon/carbon composites is much according to irregularity of used raw materials. Under the presence of boron in carbon/carbon composites, catalytic effect of boron was a little at $2000^{\circ}C$ graphitization temperature. However, it was quite at $2400^{\circ}C$ graphitization.

• Carbon letters
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.108-112
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• 2004

Effect of silicon infiltration on the bend and tensile strength of 2D cross-ply carbon-carbon composites are studied. It is observed that bend strength higher than tensile strength in both types of composite is due to the different mode of fracture and loading direction. After silicon infiltrations bend and tensile strength suddenly decreases of carbon-carbon composites. This is due to the fact that, after silicon infiltration, silicon in the immediate vicinity of carbon forms the strong bond between carbon and silicon by formation silicon carbide and un-reacted silicon as free silicon. Therefore, these composites consist of three components carbon, silicon carbide and silicon. Due to mismatch between these three components secondary cracks developed and these cracks propagate from $90^{\circ}$ oriented plies to $0^{\circ}$ oriented plies by damaging the fibers (i.e., in-situ fiber damages). Hence, secondary cracks and in-situ fiber damages are responsible for degradation of mechanical properties of carbon-carbon composites after silicon infiltration which is revealed by microstructure investigation study by scanning electron microscope.

• Carbon letters
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.27-33
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• 2006

Carbon-ceramic composites were fabricated by using fly ash and PANOX fibers as reinforcement. Fly ash, because of its small size particles e.g. submicron to micron level can be effectively dispersed along with fibrous reinforcements. Phenolic resin was used as carbon precursor. Both dry as well as wet methods were used for forming composites. The resulting composites were characterized for their microstructure, thermal and mechanical properties. The microstructure and mechanical properties of composites are found to be dependent on type of the fly ash, fibrous reinforcements as well as processing parameters. The addition of fly ash improves hardness and the fibers, which get co-carbonized on heat treatment, increase the flexural strength of the carbon-ceramic composites. Composites with dual reinforcement exhibit about 30-40% higher strength as compared to the composites made with single reinforcement, either with fly ash as filler or with chopped fibers.

• Carbon letters
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2002

Unidirectional polymer composites were prepared using high-strength carbon fibers as reinforcement and phenolic resin as matrix precursor with keeping fiber volume fraction at 30, 40, 50 and 60% respectively. These composites were carbonized at $1000^{\circ}C$ and graphitised at $2600^{\circ}C$ in the inert atmosphere. The carbonized and graphitised composites were characterized for mechanical properties as well as microstructure. Microscopic studies were carried out of the polished surface of carbonized and graphitised composites after etching by chromic acid, to understand the effect of fiber volume fraction on oxidation at fiber-matrix interface. It is found that the flexural strength in polymer composites increases with fiber volume fraction and so does for the carbonised composites. However, the trend was found to be reversed in graphitised composites. In all the carbonized composites anisotropic region has been observed at fiber-matrix interface which transforms into columnar type microstructure upon graphitisation. The extension of strong and weak columnar type microstructure is function of fiber volume fraction. SEM microscopy of the etched surface of the sample reveal that composites containing 40% fiber volume has minimum oxidation at the interface, revealing a strong interfacial bonding.

• Carbon letters
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.71-78
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• 2005

Anti-oxidation coatings are the key technique for carbon/carbon (C/C) composites used as the thermal structural materials. The microstructure and oxidation behavior of several kinds of high-performance ceramic coatings for C/C composites prepared in Northwestern Polytechnical University were introduced in this paper. It showed that the ceramic coatings such as SiC, Si-$MoSi_2$, SiC-$MoSi_2$, $Al_2O_3$-mullite-SiC and SiC/yttrium silicate/glass coatings possessed excellent oxidation resistance at high temperatures, and some of these coatings were characterized with excellent thermal shock resistance. The SiC-$MoSi_2$ coating system has the best oxidation protective property, which can effectively protect C/C composites from oxidation up to 1973 K. In addition, the protection and failure reasons of some coatings at high temperature were also provided.

• Carbon letters
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.60-63
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• 2000

In this work, the carbon fibers-reinforced carbon matrix composites made with different carbon char yields of phenolic resin matrix have been characterized by mechanical flexural tests for acoustic emission properties. The composites had been fabricated in the form of two-dimensional polyacrylonitrile based carbon fibers during the carbonization process. It was found that the composites made with the carbon char yield-rich of resin matrix result in better mechanical interfacial properties, i.e., the interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) of the composites. The data obtained from the acoustic emission monitored appeared to show that the composites made with carbon char yield-rich were also more ductile. From the acoustic emission results, the primary composite failure was largely depended on the debonding at interfaces between fibers and matrix. The interlaminar shear strengths of the composites were correlated with the acoustic emission results.

• Carbon letters
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.24-30
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• 2003

In this study, densified 4D carbon/carbon composites were made from carbon fiber and coal tar pitch through the process of pressure impregnation and carbonization and then followed by carbonization and graphitization. To improve the oxidative resistance of the prepared carbon/carbon composites, the surface of carbon/carbon composites was coated on SiC by the pack cementation method. The SiC coated layer was created by depending on the constitution of pack powder, and reaction time of pack-cementation. The morpology of crystalline and texture of these SiC coated carbon/carbon composites were investigated by XRD, SEM/EDS observation. So the coating mechanism of pack-cementation process was proposed. The oxidative res istance were observed through the air oxidation test, and then the optimal condition of pack cementation was found by them. Besides, the oxidative mechanism of SiC formed was proposed through the observation of SiC coated surface, which was undergone by oxidation test.

• Carbon letters
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.53-56
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• 2011

This study aimed to investigate the influence of mesoporous carbons on the thermal insulation properties of epoxy/mesoporous carbon composites. The mesoporous carbon (CMK-3) was prepared by conventional templating method using SBA-15. The epoxy/mesoporous carbon composites were prepared by mixing the synthesized CMK-3 with diglycidylether of bisphenol A (DGEBA). As experimental results, the curing reactivities of the DGEBA/CMK-3 composites were found to decrease with the addition of the CMK-3. Also, the thermal conductivities of DGEBA/CMK-3 composites were found to decrease with increasing CMK-3 content. This could be interpreted in terms of the slow thermal diffusion rate resulting in pore volume existing in the gaps in the interfaces between the mesoporous carbon and the DGEBA matrix.