Numerical study on heat transfer and densification for SiC composites during thermal gradient chemical vapour infiltration process

In this study, a thermal-gradient chemical vapor infiltration (TG-CVI) process was numerically studied in order to enhance the deposition uniformity within the preform. The computational fluid dynamics technique was used to solve the governing equations for heat transfer and gas flow during the TG-CVI process for two- and three-dimensional (2-D and 3-D) models. The temperature profiles in the 2-D and 3-D models showed good agreement with each other and with the experimental results. The densification process was investigated in a 2-D axisymmetric model. Computation results showed the distribution of the SiC deposition rate within the preform. The results also showed that using two-zone heater gave better deposition uniformity.