A review on filler materials for brazing of carbon-carbon composites

Abstract It is needed to join C/C composite to other materials since its individual use is limited. Brazing is a method to join C/C composite that has been studied most, maturest and most widely used in recent decades. The quality of a brazed joint is largely determined by the intermediate layer material. It is significant to choose filler materials reasonably. C/C composite is difficult to be wetted by common brazing filler materials. Moreover, there is a large difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion between C/C composite and metals. At present, there is no brazing filler alloy exclusively recommended for commercial C/C composites and metal brazing. Usually, active elements are added into filler metals to improve the wettability of them on C/C composite surface. The existing research includes Al-based, Ag-based, Cu-based, Ti-based, Ni-based brazing filler metals, and so on. In addition, various particle reinforced composite filler materials and stress buffer metal interlayer added composite filler materials have been studied for brazing C/C composite. The summarization of the overview on the application of intermediate filler metals is made in this paper. The basic reference basis is provided for the subsequent brazing filler metals development and joint performance improvement for C/C composite brazing.