Computational modeling of carbon/carbon composites under thermal shock conditions

The influence of thermal shock conditions on the extent of carbon material decomposition and through thickness compressive stiffness degradation of 2D woven carbon/carbon (C/C) composites is predicted by computational efforts and validated against experimental results. The proposed computational framework consists of two main steps: (a) radiation heat transfer analysis on a meso-scale C/C composite model exposed to thermal shock conditions accounting for the heat flux due to decomposing material; (b) stress analysis to model the carbon stiffness degradation due to oxidation observed in the previous step. This is followed by a through-thickness compression analysis on the meso-scale model to determine the composite compressive stiffness. The predicted oxidation behavior and compressive responses of the meso-scale model under various thermal shock conditions are in good agreement with previously published experimental results for temperatures up to 700 degrees C. Therefore, the proposed computational framework can be used in the initial design of C/C composites and thermal protection systems. That is, it can potentially be used for modeling other C/C composites by changing the fiber architecture, weave pattern and/or fiber volume fraction. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.