Benefits of X-Ray CMT for the Modeling of C/C Composites

• Published in: Advanced engineering materials Vol. 13; no. 3; pp. 178 - 185
• Main Authors: Coindreau, Olivia, Mulat, Christianne, Germain, Christian, Lachaud, Jean, Vignoles, Gerard L.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Weinheim WILEY-VCH Verlag 01.03.2011; WILEY‐VCH Verlag; Wiley
• Series: 3D‐Imaging of Materials and Systems
• Subjects: Ablation; Aircraft components; Carbon-carbon composites; Engineering Sciences; Materials; Mathematical models; Optimization; Phase contrast; Reinforcement; Signal and Image processing; X-rays
• ISSN: 1438-1656; 1527-2648; 1527-2648
• DOI: 10.1002/adem.201000233

C/C composites have application in very demanding areas like aerospace, fusion technology, etc. and thus their optimization is crucial, both in the control of processing routes and in the prediction of their behavior in use. Intense modeling efforts have been performed in these directions. To help a direct application on actual materials, with possibly complex reinforcement architectures, X‐ray computerized micro‐tomography (CMT) is a beneficial technique, since it allows producing extremely detailed representations of these architectures. However, there is a long way from the crude X‐ray projections to the information that is directly usable in C/C composite modeling. This paper summarizes several achievements in this domain and discusses the obtained results, concerning (i) composites imaging by phase contrast CMT and holographic CMT, (ii) evaluation of effective geometrical and transfer properties in fiber arrangements and actual fiber‐reinforced composites, (iii) modeling of degradation by ablation, and (iv) modeling of processing by chemical vapor infiltration. This article summarizes and discusses holotomographic and phase‐contrast X‐ray Tomographic imaging of C/C composites performed at two resolutions, and subsequent computations of geometrical and transport properties, as well as simulations, e.g., of the modeling of matrix processing by chemical vapor infiltration.