Heat and Mass Transfer Modeling and Simulation during Liquid Route Processing of SiC/Ti Filamentary Composites

To process SiC/Ti filamentary composites using a liquid route method, it is first necessary to overcome various major difficulties such as, high speed filament/matrix coupling, liquid titanium wetting of filament surfaces, and reduction of filament/matrix interaction. All of these requirements depend mainly on the heat and mass transfer, which occurs as the filament runs through a liquid titanium bath. Consequently, these transfers were modeled and simulated numerically during the different processing steps, particularly the cooling step. The results describe the physical phenomena which occur during the process: the carbon transfer from the carbon coated SiC filament to the liquid titanium, heat exchanges, formation of the TiC interphase at the filament surface, and, finally, the solidification of the titanium coating. Numerical simulation has shown the strong influence of running speed which governs the wettability of the filament by the liquid metal. Furthermore, the effects of an additional specific cooling device have been highlighted.