4D carbon fiber preforms were manufactured by weaving method and their carbon fiber volume fractions were 50% and 60%. In order to form carbon matrix on the preform, coal tar pitch was used for matrix precursor and high density carbon/carbon composites were obtained by high densification process. In this process, manufacture of high density composites was more effective according to pressure increasement. When densificating the preform of 60% fiber volume fraction with 900 bar, density of the composites reached at 1.90 g/cm3 after three times processing. Degree of pressure in the densification process controls macro pore but it can not affect micro pore. During the carbonization process, micro pore of the preform were filled fully by once or twice densification processing. But micro pore were not filled easily in the repeating process. Therefore, over three times densification processing is the filling micro pore.
It is well known that the fabrication process of carbon/carbon composites is very complex. Above all, the carbonization process have major effect on the morphology development of carbon matrix. Carbon/carbon composites of 4-directional fiber preform were fabricated using the coal tar based pitch as a matrix precursor in this study. According to carbonization pressure of 1 bar, 100 bar, 600 bar, and 900 bar, morphological changes of cokes and matrix of composites were discussed. As the carbonization pressure increased to 600 bar, the flow pattern morphology of bulk mesophse was well developed. On the contrary, mosaic pattern morphology was found in case of 900 bar of carbonization pressure. It is confirmed that the carbonization pressure have profound effect on the degree of graphitization and crystal size of carbon matrix. Even in the highly densified carbon/carbon composites, large voids were still found in the matrix pocket region.
석탄계 핏치의 열처리 온도 및 압력에 따른 결정화도와 기공도 그리고 산화저항성 등을 관찰하였으며, hexagonal type 4D 탄소/탄소 복합재를 석탄계 핏치로 가압함침 및 탄화시킨 다음 가해준 압력이 고밀도화에 미치는 영향을 관찰하였다. 석탄계 핏치의 가압탄화 압력이 흑연화도에 크게 영향을 미치지 않았으며, 기공면적비에 있어서는 압력을 600bar로 상승시켜 줌으로써 상압 처리한 경우 보다 1.5배 정도 감소 하였다. 650˚C까지 열처리하여 얻은 코우크스의 산화반응 개시온도는 처리압력이 증가함에 따라서 지연되었다. 탄소/탄소 복합재의 함침압력을 100bar에서 600bar로 상승시켜 줄 경우 밀도 증가율이 크게 향상 되었으며 기공도는 감소하였다.