Mechanical Properties of Carbon/Carbon Composites

Carbon fibre reinforced carbon-matrix composites (C/C) are now applied as structural materials in aerospace applications and in the space plane because of their high specific strength and specific modulus. C/C usually shows an anisotropy in its strength, which is caused not only by the orientation of the carbon fibre (CF) but also by the preferred orientation of the matrix which results from the crystallographic anisotropy [1]. Thus, C/C can be regarded as tailored materials, in which it is extremely important to know how the microstructure should be designed and how the material should be used in order to realize the potentially high performance. This requires consideration of the anisotropy and the condition of applied stress. However we also have to recognize the low strength in off-axial md multi-axial stress conditions, which is controlled by the weak van der Waals bonding of the graphite layer planes in the c-direction. in this paper the mechanical and thermal properties of the C/C composite are discussed in relation to the matrix microstructure.