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On September 9^th to 16^th 2023 the Wolfgang Hillen BaCaTeC Summer School “Ceramic Matrix Composites – Light-Weight, Efficient and Sustainable Materials for Aerospace and Spin-Off Application” took place in Bayreuth. In total 14 Ph.D. students, 5 post-docs, 3 professors and 5 industry representatives have attended. The Summer School was hosted at the University of Bayreuth by the Chair of Ceramic Materials Engineering. The further attendees were from Los Angeles from the University of Southern California and the regarding M.C. Gill Composites Center and from the Materials Resource Management Department of the University of Augsburg.  

On Saturday September 9^th all guest from the USC arrived on the airport in Frankfurt and were picked up right on time for the trip to Bayreuth. Just arrived in the hosting city, a group of the Chair of Ceramic Materials Engineering of the University of Bayreuth had prepared a welcome barbecue that kept the American colleagues awake till about 7.30 pm when the arrival day ends in the hotel.

After a short night due to some jet-lag adjustments the Summer School started with very sunny weather and a sightseeing tour all the way through Bayreuth. The Richard-Wagner-Festival-Hall is a very interesting location, worth visiting also for the local people. After this start we spend some time in the still very sunny open air. Like Wilhelmine, the former Margravine of Bayreuth, did 300 years ago, we had a nice walk through the Eremitage park, till lunch time in a typical Bavarian restaurant. Afterwards a tour through the catacombs below Bayreuth started at afternoon and passed over to a nice evening and dinner. During this evening almost all participants of the Summer School have attended and have started to get to know each other.

After this first networking event and welcome reception, the scientific program started on Monday with the keynote talk of Prof. Nutt (University of Southern California) about the manufacturing, application and challenges of CMC and UHT-CMC. The company Axiom from the US presents in another presentation about their high-end Ox/Ox composites and some key developments in this topic. After the lunch in the cafeteria of the University of Bayreuth, three different presentations about special topics (Ox/Ox development, composites repairing strategies & friction applications of CMC) completed the lecture part of Monday. In the evening the PhD students got the possibility to present their work during the Poster session. The poster award winners were Mrs. Emily-Anne Vargas from the University of Southern California, ahead of Mrs. Melissa Moos and Mrs. Jalena Best both from the University of Bayreuth. After the dinner in another appealing Franconian restaurant the participants went back to the hotel.

rom left to right: Prof. Koch, Jalena Best, Prof. Nutt, Emily-Anne Vargas, Melissa Moos, Prof. Schafföner

After this first networking event and welcome reception, the scientific program started on Monday with the keynote talk of Prof. Nutt (University of Southern California) about the manufacturing, application and challenges of CMC and UHT-CMC. The company Axiom from the US presents in another presentation about their high-end Ox/Ox composites and some key developments in this topic. After the lunch in the cafeteria of the University of Bayreuth, three different presentations about special topics (Ox/Ox development, composites repairing strategies & friction applications of CMC) completed the lecture part of Monday. In the evening the PhD students got the possibility to present their work during the Poster session. The poster award winners were Mrs. Emily-Anne Vargas from the University of Southern California, ahead of Mrs. Melissa Moos and Mrs. Jalena Best both from the University of Bayreuth. After the dinner in another appealing Franconian restaurant the participants went back to the hotel.

On Tuesday in the morning the excursion of the Summer School led to Brembo SGL Carbon Ceramic Brakes and MT Aerospace in Meitingen resp. Augsburg. In both companies we got very interesting insights about the manufacturing, development and testing of ceramic brakes and of components for space transporting systems e.g. the Ariane 6, which is on the verge to be introduced in the ESA, right after the Ariane 5 rocket. Full of new impressions and motivated to doing research in the field of Ceramic Matrix Composites all participants came back to Bayreuth in the evening.

After this trip, on Wednesday, the focus was on fundamental properties and innovative fabrication methods by Prof. Schafföner form the University of Bayreuth and the sustainability of CMCs by Prof. Koch of the University of Augsburg. Innovative techniques like the additive manufacturing, the in-situ processing and the fiber-push-out technique were introduced and discussed. Finally, a talk about the fabrication of polymer derived ceramics showed future processing routes for the fabrication of fibers, matrices and protective coatings. In the evening there was the Summer School dinner at a very nice restaurant in the city center of Bayreuth, were almost all participants of the Summer School enjoyed this wonderful evening together on one big table.

Emily-Anne Vargas during the hands-on-day at the universal testing machine

On the following Thursday four different hands-on courses were in the focus. In the morning different innovative fabrication techniques like the prepreg-processing were demonstrated, studied and discussed. After lunch time the evaluation of the ceramic matrix composites showed, that there are a lot of challenges when dealing with materials suitable for temperature above 1,000 °C, no matter if the tests were conducted in the SEM by a nano-indenter or in a universal testing machine under tension.

The final day, Friday, September 15^th closed with two keynotes about the state of the art of Ceramic Matrix Composites in Germany, presented by one of the largest CMC company Schunk Carbon Technology. On the other hand, Dr. Lee (NASA Glenn Research Center) showed the possibilities to protect CMC in harsh environments and gave us some future trends and ideas, that should influence our work significantly. During the last topic of the Summer School, the CMC expert was found within a tricky quiz competition. It all ended, like it started, with a wonderful barbecue in the venue of the TAO-building of the University of Bayreuth.

The Summer School fulfilled all expectations and more. The connection between the USC, the University of Augsburg and especially the University of Bayreuth was initiated and several research topics of common interest identified. Within a parallel BaCaTec project a personal exchange between USC und UBT is scheduled for the end of 2023 and in 2024 another Summer School will most likely be hosted by the USC in Los Angeles.