C/SiC Material Evaluation for Aircraft Brake Applications

Abstract

Carbon fiber/silicon carbide (C/SiC) composites have the potential to overcome the shortcomings of the currently used carbon and metallic friction materials in aircraft brakes. In the present work, chemical vapor infiltration (CVI), melt infiltration (MI) and polymer impregnation and pyrolysis (PIP) were used to fabricate materials for mechanical, thermal and frictional tests. PIP materials exhibited the best mechanical properties, followed by MI and CVI materials. In the case of thermal testing, MI materials were superior to the other materials. C/SiC friction coefficients were higher than the values obtained for a typical carbon composite. Wear rates of the ceramic materials were comparable to the values obtained for C/C.

Friction and surface fracture of a silicon carbide ceramic brake disc tested against a steel pad

“…The friction and wear 4 of SiC ceramics exhibit strong dependency on testing load, sliding speed, configuration, counterpart materials, environment, and temperature; their impact on triological behaviour of SiC ceramics has been fairly reasonably established 17,18 . As a highlight, a silicon carbide ceramic can subject to a mild wear in the early stage of contact or under mild testing conditions; a plastically deformed surface is developed through surface smearing; and a friction transfer layer is deposited on if wear debris can have strong enough chemical bonding with silicon carbide, leaving a friction track showing smooth morphology, as observed by…”

“…Silicon carbide becomes a key constituent in a carbon fibre reinforced ceramic composite, a material that has been exploited actively as a new generation of brake disc, or rotor, for braking application in automotive vehicles, airplanes and heavy duty machineries 1,2,3,4,5,6 .…”

Tribological behaviour of C/C–SiC composites—A review

“…C/C-SiC composites have good resistance to oxidation and high static coefficient of friction, and the sensibility to environment is low. This makes C/C-SiC composites a potential material for aircraft braking system [11,25,28,66,67]. However, the density of C/C-SiC composites is higher than C/C composites which makes C/C-SiC composites heavier than C/C composites and limits their applications in some weight sensitive aircrafts.…”

Tribological Properties of Short Fiber C/SiC Brake Materials and 30CrSiMoVA Mate

“…The C/SiC composites combined the advantages of PM and C/C brakes, and overcame most of the disadvantages of PM and C/C brakes, which exhibited a series of outstanding advantages such as low density, good high temperature resistance, high strength, excellent friction properties, low wear rate, and long life [1][2][3][4][5][6].…”