Microstructure and Ablation Behavior of C/C-SiC-(ZrxHf1-x)C Composites Prepared by Reactive Melt Infiltration Method

Zaidong Liu; Yalei Wang; Xiang Xiong; Zhiyong Ye; Quanyuan Long; Jinming Wang; Tongqi Li; Congcong Liu

doi:10.3390/ma16052120

Microstructure and Ablation Behavior of C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C Composites Prepared by Reactive Melt Infiltration Method

Materials (Basel). 2023 Mar 6;16(5):2120. doi: 10.3390/ma16052120.

Authors

Zaidong Liu¹, Yalei Wang¹, Xiang Xiong¹, Zhiyong Ye¹, Quanyuan Long¹, Jinming Wang², Tongqi Li², Congcong Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Powder Metallurgy, Central South University, Changsha 410083, China.
² Science and Technology of Advanced Functional Composites Laboratory, Aerospace Research Institute of Materials and Processing Technology, Beijing 100076, China.

Abstract

C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C composites were prepared by the reactive melt infiltration method. The microstructure of the porous C/C skeleton and the C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C composites, as well as the structural evolution and ablation behavior of the C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C composites, were systematically investigated. The results show that the C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C composites were mainly composed of carbon fiber, carbon matrix, SiC ceramic, (Zr_xHf_1-x)C and (Zr_xHf_1-x)Si₂ solid solutions. The refinement of the pore structure is beneficial to promote the formation of (Zr_xHf_1-x)C ceramic. The C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C composites exhibited outstanding ablation resistance under an air-plasma environment at around 2000 °C. After ablation for 60 s, CMC-1 appeared to possess the minimum mass and linear ablation rates of only 2.696 mg/s and -0.814 µm/s, respectively, which are lower than those of CMC-2 and CMC-3. During the ablation process, a Bi-liquid phase and a liquid-solid two-phase structure were formed on the ablation surface which could act as an oxygen diffusion barrier to retard further ablation, which is responsible for the excellent ablation resistance of the C/C-SiC-(Zr_xHf_1-x)C composites.

Keywords: ablation behavior; ceramic matrix composites; microstructure; reactive melt infiltration.

Abstract

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