Abstract
Continuous fiber reinforced titanium matrix composites (TMCs) are attractive for aerospace structures because of their high specific properties and a high temperature capability. Particularly, when a fan rotor ring is circumferencially reinforced with the unidirectional TMCs, much of weight saving is expected, because the ring is able to carry the high hoop stress. In this paper, manufacturing process and properties of TMC ring are investigated.
The TMC ring was produced by the following process: A fiber was wound onto a core ring, and then matrix metal was sprayed onto the fiber by low pressure plasma spraying. The surface of the sprayed preform was smoothed by grinding. The fiber winding, plasma spraying and machining were repeated to produce a five-layered TMC ring preform. The preform was consolidated to obtain a full dense ring by hot isostatic pressing. The ring was finished to the designated dimension by machining.
To examine the quality of TMC ring, the matrix of the TMC ring was dissolved chemically and fibers were extracted. A lot of fiber breakage was observed on the etched TMC ring surface, and a possible cause of this breakage is indicated.
