Robust numerical simulation of porosity evolution in chemical vapor infiltration III: three space dimension

Chemical vapor infiltration (CVI) process is an important technology to fabricate ceramic matrix composites (CMC's). In this paper, a three-dimension numerical model is presented to describe pore microstructure evolution during the CVI process. We extend the two-dimension model proposed in [S. Jin, X.L. Wang, T.L. Starr, J. Mater. Res. 14 (1999) 3829; S. Jin. X.L. Wang, T.L. Starr, X.F. Chen, J. Comp. Phys. 162 (2000) 467], where the fiber surface is modeled as an evolving interface, to the three space dimension. The 3D method keeps all the virtue of the 2D model: robust numerical capturing of topological changes of the interface such as the merging, and fast detection of the inaccessible pores. For models in the kinetic limit, where the moving speed of the interface is constant, some numerical examples are presented to show that this three-dimension model will effectively track the change of porosity, close-off time, location and shape of all pores. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.