Patent ID: 7727591

Claim:
A method of controlling or modeling the process of densifying at least one porous substrate with pyrolytic carbon by chemical vapor infiltration, the process comprising: placing a load comprising one or more porous substrates to be densified in an oven; heating the substrate(s); admitting a reaction gas into the oven, the reaction gas containing at least one carbon-precursor hydrocarbon selected in the group of propane, butane, propylene and ethane; adjusting the pressure in the oven so as to enable the gas to diffuse within the pores of the heated substrate(s) so as to form a deposit of pyrolytic carbon therein; and extracting effluent gas from the oven via an extraction pipe connected to an outlet from the oven; the method being characterized by measuring the content in the effluent gas of at least one compound selected from allene and propine; and controlling the process by adjusting at least the flow rate of the carbon-precursor hydrocarbon admitted into the oven to maintain the measured content at a substantially constant value.