Optimizing mechanical and thermal expansion properties of carbon/carbon composites by controlling textures

Abstract The present study explored the effect of medium texture (MT) content on flexural properties and thermal expansion coefficients (CTES) of carbon/carbon (C/C) composites with multilayered pyrolytic carbon. The specimen with 39% MT exhibited maximum flexural strength of 221.55 MPa, increasing by 52% compared with pure high texture. While the flexural strength decreased when the MT content exceeded 39%. The excellent strength can be attributed to crack deflection between multilayered texture and the strong interface bonding between fibers and matrix. Moreover, the four specimens expressed a similar trend of CTES in the direction of XY and Z. In the direction of XY, the specimen with 39% MT had the lowest CTES from 800 °C to 2100 °C. Therefore, the C/C composites with 39% MT have the best mechanical and thermal expansion properties, which means that the properties of C/C composites can be optimized by controlling the texture.