Thermal conductivities of a needle-punched carbon/carbon composite with unbalanced structures

The XYZ 3-dimensional thermal conductivities of the C/C up to 2000 °C were measured by a laser flash method. Carbon fiber-reinforced carbon composites (C/C) were generally developed for aerospace missions due to their excellent thermal resistivity at ultrahigh temperature. C/C must endure harsh environments such as thousands of degrees Celsius without degradation of its mechanical properties. To solve this problem, among the passive thermal protection system, we suggest a method of conducting more heat through the mono-axial direction, which resulted in ease of the thermal rise in the heat receiving part. For example, the X-43A flight applied unbalanced C/C (UCC) with different carbon fiber orientation ratios according to the XY direction in the leading edge part. To investigate the difference in thermal conductivity between unbalanced C/C (UCC) and balanced C/C (BCC), unbalanced and balanced preforms were prepared by a needle punching process, and then they were densified by pitch infiltration and a carbonization process. We compared and analyzed the effects of unbalanced C/C(UCC) and balanced C/C (BCC) structures on the thermal conductivity. We also designed the “rule of mixtures” equation for calculating thermal conductivities of each C/C using reported data of carbon fiber and graphite matrix. Our calculations of thermal conductivity ratio match the ratio of real data.