Strerryth of' Malerials, VoL. 31, No.

3, 1999

EXPERIMENTAL EQUIPMENT FOR THE EVALUATION

OF THE STRENGTH CHARACTERISTICS OF CARBON-CARBON COMPOSITE MATERIALS
WITHIN THE TEMPERATURE RANGE 2O_2200'C

A. N. Negovskii,u A. V. Drozdov,u V. V. Kutnyak,n Yu. A. Nozhnitskii,b UDC 678.067.5:539.4

A. N. Menshikov,o Qiao Shengru,'and Bai Shihong'

We suggest procedures for testing and. describe the design of a UKM-2200 specialized experimental
installation for tensile and bending testing of specimens made of carbon-carbon composite materials in
a vacuunr or inert media within the temperature range 20-220UC. We discuss the results of strength
tests .for specimens of carbon-carbon composite mqterials with multidirected spatial reinforcement oJ
the struclure and with felt-like structure in a vacuunt.for the same tempereture range.

Carbon carbon composite materials (CCCM) are extensively used in aircraft and spacecraft engineering
because they have quite high, as compared with other structural materials, specific strength characteristics at high
temperatures and, therefore, efficiently withstand the simultaneous action of intense heat flows and mechanical loads.
This problem has attacted attention of experts from many research centers engaged in the study of the properties of
CCCM and is discussed in numerous publications [1-5]. The main difficulties of the experimental procedure are
connected with the necessity of creation of a uniform stress field in a specimen made of an anisotropic composite, with
the elimination of "parasitic" contact stresses in grips, and with the realization of high-precision measurements of low
levels ofstrains. To determine the mechanical characteristics of these materials, it is necessary to have complete
stress-strain diagrams in the entire working temperature range.
One of the most important problems that must be solved in the course of the development of experimental
equipment for the evaluation of the strength characteristics of CCCM involves the selection of materials (used to
manufacture heating elements, thermal screens, grips, parts of instrumentation and measuring probes, thermocouples
and protective covers for them), preserving their serviceability at temperatures not lower than 2200'C in a vacuum in
the presence of carbon when the majority of structural materials suffer high-temperature oxidation and carbon
embrittlement [3, 4].
On the basis of many years of experience accumulaled at the Institute of Problems of Strength (IPS) of the
National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in the field of experimental investigation of the physicomechanical
characteristics of CCCM, a UKM-2200 specialized experimental installation for tensile and bending tests of CCCM
specimens in vacuum and inert media in the temperature range 2V2200'C was developed at the Special Design and
Technological Office of the IPS with the participation of experts from the Central Institute of Aircraft Engine Building
(Moscow, Russia) and the Northwest Polytechnical University (Sian, China).
The main element of this installation (Fig. l) is a high-temperature, water-cooled chamber. The role of this
chamber is played by a vacuum chamber from a 1246-UTM testing machine (produced by the "Izmeritel" Scientific and
Industrial Association in Moscow). Heating elements, thermal screens, grips, and instrumentation for testing are placed
inside the chamber. To minimize the effect of chemical reactions and guarantee the required structural strength at high
temperatures, all elements of the internal instrumentation of the vacuum chamber were made of carbon materials
[pyrocompacted CCCM with bidirected (2D according to the classification from [6]) and multidirected (3D and 4D)
spatial reinforcement of the structurel and graphite. A cylindrical electric fumace consisted of eight radially located

"Special Design and Technological Office, Institute of Problems of Stength, National Academy of Sciences of
Ukraine, Kiev, Ukaine. tentral Institute of Aircraft Engine Building, Moscow, Russia. 'Northwest Polytechnical
University, Sian, China. Translated ftom Problemy Prochnosti, No. 3, pp. 130 - 138, May - June, 1999. Original article
submitted March 23. 1998.

0039-23 | 6199 I 31 03-03 19522.00 t 1 999 Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers 319

 -'------- ------..--

Fig. 2. Instrumentation for testing by bending: a) bending by a concentrated force; b) pure bending.

The attachments shown in Fig. 3 enable us to caffy out tensile tests of plane specimens of . A specimen -l is
fixed by fingers 2 in an upper 3 and a lower 4 grip. The upper grip is connected by the tie-rod 5 with the tie-rod of the
tbrce cell (not shown in the figure). The lower grip, via an adapter 6, is fastened to the loading rod of the system of
mechanical loading (not shown in the figure). When the specimen is mounted in the grips, the upper Z and lower 8
cross-pieces are put on its bench-mark flanges. With the help of fingers 9, internal 10 and external 11 measuring
tie-rods, connected with the variable-induction pickup of displacements and the supporling table of the device for
measurement of displacements, respectively, are attached to the cross-pieces. The specimen elongation in the course of
the tests is determined by the measurement of mutual displacement of the pickup and the supporting table.
The system of temperature regulation in our installation (see Fig. 1) consists of a TVR tungsten-rhenium
thermocouple, a PROTERM-IOO precision microprocessor temperature regulator (MZTA, Moscow), and a power
block, including an ROT-250 alternating voltage regulator and an OSU-40/05A step-down voltage transformer with a
power of 40 kVA. The PROTERM-10O multifunctional temperature regulator realizes measurement of the
thermocouple signal, its linearization and indication directly in degrees, intoduction of the necessary heating program,
and temperature regulation in accordance with this program. The absolute error of temperature regulation for
steady-state conditions does not exceed tl2nC.

321
 {
I

_v_-_--- "ir

l0
-...t-----.-.-.-l I

-.-.-.-._-_::---'

Fis. 3. Instrumentation for tensile testins.

An important condition for guaranteeing reliable operation of the installation is a sufficient service resource of
the TVR thermoelectric temperature transducer in a carbon-contajning medium. Approbation of various ceramic
materials as a protective cover for the TVR has shown that application of boron carbonitride gives the best results. The
cover manufactured of these materials ensures reliable protection of the thermocouple at its multiple (up to 10 times and
more) heating to a temperature of 2200'C in a carbon-containing medium.
A load-carrying frame, the main element of which is the vacuum chamber shell proper, a direct-current motor
with a reduction gear, an electromechanical drive of the type EShIM-1, and a control unit of the drive are parts of the
system of mechanical loading. This system ensures application of forces up to 10 kN to the specimen in a range of
velocities of the loading rod from 0.005 to 30 mm./min. To control the position of the loading rod, an optical-electronic
pickup with a resolution of 5 pm is mounted in the reduction gear.
The vacuum system of the installation consists of the vacuum chamber, a 2NVR-5D roughing-down pump, a
VN-2MG diffusion vapor-oil pump, a set of EMVl-EMV4 mechanical and electromechanical valves, and also a control
block of vacuum-gas units, which ensures control of the evacuation process and intoduction of an inert gas under a
small gauge pressure into the vacuum chamber (if necessary). Measurement of the vacuum is realized by a vacuum
gauge of the type VIT-3 and ionization (of the types PMI-i0-2 and PMI-51) or tiermocouple (of the type PMT-3)
converters in the range 102-10-s Pa (1-10-7 mm Hg).
The measuring system of the installation is formed of a modular unit [7] controlled by a personal computer and
including subblocks for measuring forces and displacements and for control of the installation drive.
The measuring system guarantees the measurement of forces in the range 0-10 kN with relative error not
greater than 0.5Vo, arrd also of displacements in the range 0-1000 4m or 0-10 mm with limits of absolute
error of T10 pm and {.1 mm, respectively.
For safe operation of the installation, it is equipped with alarm systems signaling vacuum deterioration,
reduction in the water pressure in the system of water cooling, fault in the electric furnace, and failure of the

322
thermocouple, and also with a blocking system, preventing mistaken actions of the operator in the course of evacuation
and filling of the vacuum chamber by an inert gas.
Operation of the installation is possible both under manual and automatic control. In the first case, the operator
manually sets the conditions of operation of the vacuum-gas units and ddve of the system of mechanical loading, and
also the limits of measurements of the measuring system. The heating regime is set and checked manually or according
to a program. For this purpose, corresponding panels of manual control are provided.
Operation of the installation under automatic regime reduces the labor input and increases the rate of canying
out tests owing to the fact that, in this case, control of the drive of the system of mechanical loading and operation of the
system of temperature regulation, collection, processing, documentation, and archiving of experimental data are realized
with the help of an IBM personal computer.
It should be noted that som€ features of the construction of the attachments for testing specimens of CCCM
and, in particular, of the schemes of measurements of displacements on the specimens (see Figs. 2 and 3) required one
to refine the design formulas for determination of relative deformations of the specimens. For example, at tests for
bending by a concentrated force, the specimen deflection is measured not directly in the zone of action of the
concentrated force, but at points located in the cantilever parts of the specimen (Fig. 2a). Since measurement of the
specimen deflection is carried out at a section situated rather far (at a distance more than the specimen height) from the
zone of application of the concentrated force, according to [7] we can neglect the contribution of the cutting force in the
total specimen deflection. In this case, the specimen deflection in the span middle is

@^=#(;)(,-^i)=# Pt3
4Ebh3
(l)

where P is the force acting on the specimen, I is the distance between supporting points of the specimen (l = 60 mm),
d is the modulus of elasticity, I is the moment of inertia of the specimen cross-section, , and l, are its width and
height, respectively, and x is the coordinate of a point on the line of the beam deflection (for the span middle, -t = I / 2).
According to Eq. (l), the specimen deflection at the points of location of the measuring prods (x = 22.5) can be
presented in the form
a , .T .rl
:Jt=(rJ;\i,_
\60) jI: " su+=o
0 o e t4u n,,
-'-^ (2)
^, 4Ebh:\eol1"^(ry)' 4Ebh3

whence the maximal specimen deflection is

,n =1.094ut *,. r?)

In this case, the maximal specimen deformation is calculated according to the formula

6h
€,n=1.094+@,n". (4)
It

At pure bending tests (Fig. 2b), we measure the total specimen deflection (but not its deflection in the zone of
pure bending, as is usually accepted), which, according to [7], is equal to

aa

or=Wp.
4EbhJ
(s)

where ais the length of the cantilever part of the specimen.

This enables us to write the maximal specimen deformation in its middle part as follows:

t2h
t: -;--; @. (6)
3l' - 4a'

323
 T=22ffioC
oC
T= 2000
t700

+0
80
30
DU
on
.U
w
fl
on
4,1 JA EJ04 mtn't
a
30 60 E,l7-+ r-nlnt

Fig. 4 Fig. 5

Fig. 4. Deformation diagrams obtained during tensile tests of specimens of CCCM: a) 4D-composite;
b) FS-composite.
Fis. 5. Deformation diagrams obtained during pure bending tests of specimens of the 4D-composite.

At tensile tests, the relative specimen deformation is determined by the formula

Lt
(7)
I

where A/ is the specimen elongation measured in the course of the tests and I is the length of its working part.
It should be noted that, according to the accepted scheme of measurements, at tensile tests, we measure the
specimen elongation not at its working part, but at a part that includes also its supporting (bench-mark) flange.
However, taking into account the stress distribution in the supporting section of the specimen and the dimensions of this
section, we can neglect the additional elongation at this part of the specimen due to its smallness.
Current and ultimate values of stresses in the specimens are estimated in accordance with the elementary theory
of strength of At the same time, the available software makes it possible to estimate the stength
materials.
characteristics of
with account of their nonlinear relationship.
Tdal operation of the UKM-2200 installation has corroborated the efficiency of materials selected for the
manufacture of high-temperature elements of its construction, since they guarantee reliable operation of the installation
dudng the perfbrmance of comparatively long tests. In the course of trial operation of the installation, we carried out
investigations of sftength characteristics of a multidirected (4D) pyrocompacted CCCM, and also of a CCCM with felt
structure (FS). Typical deformation diagrams for specimens of these materials obtained during tensile tests in vacuum at
differeDt temperatures are depicted in Fig. 4. It is seen that, with an increase in the test temperature from room
temperature to 1900-2200'C, the tensile strength of both composites grows by 40-7OVo, which was also noted in [], 2,
4, 61. However, there are some differences in the mechanical behavior of the investigated CCCM, e.g., when the
temperature increases, the modulus of elasticity decreases for the 4D-composite and, vice versa, grows for the
FS-composite. Moreover, for the FS-composite, we recorded a higher nonlinearity of the deformation diagrams as
compared with the 4D-composite, which can be explained by specific features of spatial reinforcement of the sftucture
of these matedals.
Similar regularities of the mechanical behavior were obtained during pure bending tests of specimens of the
4D-composite in vacuum (Fig. 5). At a test temperature of 2000'C, the modulus of elasticity for this material was
somewhat lower, and the ultimate strength was higher by 6OEa on average than the analogous characteristics at room
temperature. Unlike tensile tests, the specimens of the 4D-composite failed abruptly during bending tests. Failure of
separate fibers and layers was accompanied by a decrease in the load and a significant increase in the specimen
deflection. This also affected the form of the deformation diagrams, which, at bending tests, differed by a greater
nonlinearity as compared with tensile tests.

324
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