English
In the context of rapid industrialization in today's world, the uses of carbon fiber are becoming more diversified. In situations where high temperature and high physical stability are required, carbon fiber composite materials have irreplaceable advantages. The higher the specific strength of the material, the smaller the deadweight of the component, and the higher the specific modulus, the greater the stiffness of the component. It is precisely because of its excellent performance that carbon fiber has broad application prospects in both national defense and civilian fields.
Composite materials
In addition to being used as thermal insulation materials in traditional use, carbon fiber is often added as a reinforcing material to resins, metals, ceramics, concrete and other materials to form composite materials. Carbon fiber has become the most important reinforcing material for advanced composite materials. Because carbon fiber composite materials have the characteristics of light and strong, light and rigid, high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, fatigue resistance, good structural dimensional stability, good design, and large-area integral molding, they have been widely used in various fields of aerospace, national defense, military industry and civilian industry.
Carbon fiber can be processed into fabrics, felt, mats, tapes, paper and other materials. High-performance carbon fiber is the most important reinforcing material for manufacturing advanced composite materials.
Civil Engineering
Carbon fiber is also used in the reinforcement of industrial and civil buildings, railway and highway bridges, tunnels, chimneys, tower structures, etc. In railway construction, large top systems and soundproof walls will have good applications in the future, which will also be promising applications of carbon fiber. It has the characteristics of low density, high strength, good durability, strong corrosion resistance, corrosion resistance of chemicals such as acids and alkalis, good flexibility, and strong strain capacity. The truss frame roof made of carbon fiber tubes is about 50% lighter than steel, which makes large structures reach the level of practicality, and the construction efficiency and seismic performance have been greatly improved. In addition, when carbon fiber is used to reinforce concrete structures, it does not need to add bolts and rivets to fix them, which has little disturbance to the original concrete structure and simple construction process.
Aerospace
Carbon fiber is an indispensable strategic basic material for cutting-edge weapons and equipment such as rockets, satellites, missiles, fighters and ships. Applying carbon fiber composite materials to the missile body and engine casing of strategic missiles can greatly reduce weight and improve the missile's range and assault capability. For example, the three-stage casing of the intercontinental missile developed by the United States in the 1980s all uses carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite materials. Carbon fiber composite materials have also begun to be used in large quantities on new generation fighters. For example, the fourth generation fighter F22 of the United States uses about 24% carbon fiber composite materials, which enables the fighter to have the characteristics of hypersonic cruise, beyond visual range combat, high maneuverability and stealth. Boeing of the United States launched a new generation of high-speed wide-body passenger aircraft, the Sonic Cruiser, about 60% of the structural components will be made of reinforced carbon fiber plastic composite materials, including the wings. The performance of the carbon fiber composite brake preforms independently developed by China has reached the international level. The domestically produced carbon brake discs prepared by this preform technology have been equipped in batches on key defense models of military aircraft and used on B757 civil aircraft. The use of other models is also under experimental assessment and will be promoted to tanks, high-speed trains, luxury cars, racing cars, etc. Carbon fiber is lighter than aluminum but has similar strength. Carbon fiber also has important application value in ships. It can reduce the structural weight of ships, increase the effective load of ships, and thus improve the ability to transport combat materials. Carbon fiber does not have the problem of corrosion and rust.
Carbon fiber is also the perfect material for modern transportation tools such as large civil aircraft, cars, and high-speed trains to achieve "lightweight". The demand for carbon fiber in aviation applications is increasing. The new generation of large civil passenger aircraft Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 use about 50% carbon fiber composite materials. The fuselage of Boeing 787 uses carbon fiber, which makes the aircraft fly faster and consume less fuel. At the same time, it can increase the humidity in the cabin and make passengers more comfortable.
Automotive materials
Carbon fiber materials have also become a material favored by automakers and have begun to be widely used in the interior and exterior decoration of cars. As an automotive material, the biggest advantage of carbon fiber is its light weight and high strength. Its weight is only 20% to 30% of that of steel, but its hardness is more than 10 times that of steel. Therefore, the use of carbon fiber materials in automobile manufacturing can make breakthrough progress in the lightweighting of automobiles and bring social benefits of energy saving. The industry believes that the use of carbon fiber in the field of automobile manufacturing will increase.
Take a carbon fiber car developed by the Chinese Academy of Sciences as an example. If you hit the hood of a car made of ordinary materials with a hammer, the paint cover is likely to be dented, but the shell of this car is very strong. After hitting the hood hard, it will rebound rapidly without any damage to the surface. Researchers said that the biggest feature of cars made of carbon fiber composite materials is lightness and speed compared to ordinary steel cars. Carbon fiber cars abandon traditional steel structures and use a large amount of carbon fiber materials, which can reduce the weight of ordinary steel cars by 60%. Under the same oil consumption, this car can drive 50 kilometers more per hour.
Although carbon fiber is light, it has better safety. Although carbon fiber looks like plastic, it is actually more impact-resistant than steel, especially the steering wheel made of carbon fiber, which has higher mechanical strength and impact resistance. With the cooperation of composite materials, carbon fiber cars have become armored cars among family cars.
Fiber reinforcement
Carbon fiber reinforcement includes carbon fiber cloth reinforcement and carbon fiber plate reinforcement. The research on the use of carbon fiber materials for reinforcement and repair of concrete structures began in the 1980s in developed countries such as the United States and Japan. China started this technology very late, but with the rapid development of China's economic construction and transportation, a considerable number of existing buildings have historical problems due to the low design load standards at that time. Some buildings are difficult to meet the current standard use requirements due to changes in their use functions and are in urgent need of repair and reinforcement. There are many commonly used reinforcement methods, such as: increasing the section method, external steel reinforcement method, bonding steel reinforcement method, carbon fiber reinforcement method, etc. Carbon fiber reinforcement and repair structure technology is another new type of structural reinforcement technology after increasing the concrete section and bonding steel.
China began to introduce carbon fiber composite material reinforcement concrete structure technology research from abroad in 1997, which has become a hot spot for research and engineering application. Dozens of universities and research institutes in China have carried out this research work and have achieved a number of research results close to the international advanced level. Since China has the world's largest civil construction market, the application of carbon fiber reinforced building structures will show a growing trend.
Sporting Goods
Carbon fiber is used in the field of sports and leisure. Sports goods such as clubs, fishing rods, tennis rackets, badminton rackets, bicycles, ski poles, skis, windsurfing masts, and sailing hulls are among the main users of carbon fiber.
Ball bats and racket frames are important manifestations of sports applications. It is estimated that the annual production of baseball bats is 34 million pairs. 40% of baseball bats in the world are made of carbon fiber. The market capacity of tennis racket frames is about 6 million pairs per year. Other sports applications include ice hockey sticks and ski poles. Carbon fiber is also used in other marine sports such as rowing and rowing.
Wind turbine blades
The rated power of wind turbine generators in the world is getting larger and larger, and the size of wind turbine blades corresponding to them is also getting larger and larger. In order to reduce the deformation of the blades, carbon fiber is used in the main load-bearing parts such as bearings and certain parts of the blades to supplement their stiffness. Carbon fiber also has broad application prospects in new energy fields such as wind energy, nuclear energy and solar energy. When the power of wind turbines exceeds 3MW and the length of blades exceeds 40 meters, the performance of traditional glass fiber composite materials has reached its limit, and the use of carbon fiber composite materials to manufacture blades is a necessary choice. Only carbon fiber can reduce the weight of the blades while meeting the requirements of strength and stiffness.