SBIR-STTR Award

Texas Research Institute Austin, Inc. will demonstrate that the coupling of centrifugal spinning and microwave irradiation followed by mechanical sonication will yield short fibers of sufficient diameter, length, and thermomechanical performance to be spun into a high quality yarn in the Phase I Effort. The quality and performance of the proposed beta silicon carbide (-SiC) yarns will be compared to commercially available fibers from COI Ceramics and Specialty Materials. The fibers, which have been previously fabricated and tested in-lab are currently considered to have a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3 and a Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) of 3 and are ready to be further developed into high quality yarns. The equipment that will be used has a TRL and MRL of 5-6. This approach offers uniform volumetric and localized heating, and thus better and more uniform mechanical properties of the final products, while at the same time lowering the cost of SiC fiber production and ceramic matrix composite manufacturing and reducing processing time, energy consumption, and carbon footprint. Since this approach can be carried out in an out-of-oven setup, the prospect for repeatable, high throughput, low-cost manufacturing of -SiC fiber and yarns is obtainable.

Benefit:
Commercialization and transition efforts will be directed toward: 1) development of a high throughput method to provide high quality, relatively low cost, short SiC fibers for spinning into yarns, 2) integration of SiC yarns into the production lines of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) with little additional cost to the customer, and 3) identification and penetration into additional markets for short SiC fiber yarns. Additional efforts will focus on the aforementioned areas for other high temperature fibers with input from the TPOC. The largest benefit to the DoD and private sector market is the ability to rapidly fabricate -SiC and other high temperature short fibers at high volume without the need for bulky heating equipment such as furnaces. The proposed method will be material agnostic and has already been proven for MgO-C, Teflon, polyvinylidene fluoride, polypropylene, indium oxide, and carbon fibers. In this method, polycarbosilane is spun, crosslinked, and sintered yielding SiC fiber that is 10-20 m in diameter. Polytitanocarbosilane has also been used as a precursor to make SiC fibers.

Keywords:
silicon carbide, silicon carbide, manufacturing, weaving, Thermal protection system, yarn, ceramic matrix composites, force spinning, Hypersonics