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Register a new userHigh-precision CTE measurement of hybrid C/SiC composite for cryogenic space telescopes
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This paper presents highly precise measurements of thermal expansion of a hybrid carbon-fiber reinforced silicon carbide composite, HB-Cesictextregistered - a trademark of ECM, in the temperature region of sim310-10K. Whilst C/SiC composites have been considered to be promising for the mirrors and other structures of space-borne cryogenic telescopes, the anisotropic thermal expansion has been a potential disadvantage of this material. HB-Cesictextregistered is a newly developed composite using a mixture of different types of chopped, short carbon-fiber, in which one of the important aims of the development was to reduce the anisotropy. The measurements indicate that the anisotropy was much reduced down to 4% as a result of hybridization. The thermal expansion data obtained are presented as functions of temperature using eighth-order polynomials separately for the horizontal (XY-) and vertical (Z-) directions of the fabrication process. The average CTEs and their dispersion (1{sigma}) in the range 293-10K derived from the data for the XY- and Z-directions were 0.805$pm$0.003times10$^{-6}$ K$^{-1}$ and 0.837pm0.001times10$^{-6}$ K$^{-1}$, respectively. The absolute accuracy and the reproducibility of the present measurements are suggested to be better than 0.01times10$^{-6}$ K$^{-1}$ and 0.001times(10)^{-6} K^{-1}, respectively. The residual anisotropy of the thermal expansion was consistent with our previous speculation regarding carbon-fiber, in which the residual anisotropy tended to lie mainly in the horizontal plane.
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