Abstract:
Recently, many countries have expressed the same vision of “sustained lunar presence” in their latest aerospace plans, which imposes higher technical requirements for materials for aerospace industry. Advanced titanium matrix composites (TMCs) have garnered significant attention from researchers owing to their high mechanical performance, friction and wear resistance, and functional characteristics. Those materials are expected to facilitate the advancement of aerospace industry and provide crucial technical support for the lunar mission. In this paper, we review the cutting-edge scientific research and current application of TMCs in aerospace, introduce the fabricating processes, microstructures and service performances of several typical reinforcements (for example, SiC fiber, nanocarbon, TiC, TiB, and short carbon fiber) in TMCs, and summarize the progress and problems of application of TMCs into the aerospace field in recent years. Besides, we compare the development and application of advanced TMCs into the key aerospace components home and abroad, highlight the research status and shortcomings of TMCs in China, and point out the important problems faced in the development of TMCs with high performance. At last, we prospect the development of TMCs in the aerospace field based on the current application.