Correlation of microstructure and compressive strength of C/C composite using X-ray tomography

Sumita, Junya ; Shibata, Taiju ; Kunimoto, Eiji*; Yamaji, Masatoshi*; Konishi, Takashi*; Sawa, Kazuhiro

For control rod element of Very High Temperature Reactor, carbon fiber reinforced carbon matrix composite (C/C composite) is one of the major candidate materials for its high strength and thermal stability. The development of a property prediction model of the two-dimensional (2D)-C/C composite is one of the most important subjects for the design methodology for control rod. Since the property of the 2D-C/C composite is strongly dependent on its microstructure, fiber/matrix, it would be possible to evaluate the properties of the 2D-C/C composite from its microstructure. In this study, in order to develop the property prediction model of the 2D-C/C composite base on its microstructure, pore distribution was investigated by using the X-ray computed tomography (X-ray CT) images and developed image based voxcel model. The compressive strength of the 2D-C/C composite was measured and evaluated by the voxcel model. This study shows that the pore distribution in the 2D-C/C composite can be confirmed visually and the volume and shape of the pores can be estimated from X-ray CT images. It is also shown that evaluation of the compressive strength by using the voxel model is useful to simulate the trend of the stress distribution of the 2D-C/C composite. However, it is necessary to characterize the property of the 2D-C/C composite and to set up the appropriate mesh to simulate the absolute stress value precisely.