Nozzle extensions made of ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have shown the potential to replace heavy superalloy nozzles and improve the performance of future upper‐stage and orbital rocket engines. Gas permeability has been reported to be a critical issue during the manufacture for CMC nozzles. This work shows the manufacture of a dense radiation‐cooled C/C‐SiC nozzle demonstrator. A multi‐angle fiber architecture was applied using filament winding technique to reduce the incidence of delaminations during the manufacturing process under high temperatures. Additional efforts were made to improve the final gas tightness and reduce the amount of residual silicon by means of an adapted liquid silicon infiltration process. The manufacture, the material, and structural characterization as well as a finite element analysis of a performed internal pressure test are presented.

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This study presents enhanced studies of inverse approach of the classical laminate theory for prediction of the elastic properties of a wound oxide ceramic matrix composites material (CMC). Based on mechanical tests and microstructure analysis, elastic properties of virtual equivalent unidirectional layers were calculated. To adapt the analytical model to CMCs from different batches which show various fiber volume contents, porosities, and different fiber orientations, a scaling factor Ω was introduced with the help of modified mixing considering these specific properties. A good correlation between experimental and analytically calculated results showed in this study.

In the frame of Horizon 2020 European C 3 HARME research project, the manufacture of ZrB2-based CMCs was developed through different processes: slurry infiltration and sintering, radio frequency chemical vapour infiltration (RF-CVI) and reactive metal infiltration (RMI). To assess the high temperature stability, room temperature bending strength was measured after oxidizing the samples at 2278 K and compared to the strength of the as-produced materials. Microstructures were analysed before and after the thermal treatment to assess the damage induced by the high temperature oxidation. Short fibre-reinforced composites showed the highest retained strength (>80 %) and an unchanged stress-strain curve.

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