C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC Composite Derived from Polymeric Precursor Infiltration and Pyrolysis Part 2: Mechanical and Ablation Properties

Mechanical and ablation properties of the 2D C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites with a fiber volume fraction of 17.6%, fabricated by infiltration and co-pyrolysis of blended polymeric precursors, were studied in this Part II. Flexural strength and fracture toughness of the composites were found to be influenced strongly by the thickness of the deposited pyrolytic carbon interphase, a composite with the pyrolytic carbon volume fraction of 22.3% exhibits improved bending strength and fracture toughness of 127.9 MPa and 6.23 MPa·m1/2, respectively. The pseudo-plastic strain to failure of the composite is ascribed to sliding of the interphase and pulling out of carbon fibers from the brittle ceramics matrix. Ablation properties of the composite were investigated with a plasma torch and arc-heated wind tunnel tests at temperatures above 1800~2200°C. The composite exhibits very low ablation rates of 0.18×10-3 mm/s at 1800°C and 0.37×10-3 mm/s at 2000°C in the plasma torch after 1000s testing, as compared to a similar rate of 0.30×10-3 mm/s in the wind tunnel at 1900°C after 600s testing. Ablation rates increase with increasing of temperatures from 1800 to 2200°C. The maximum ablation rate is only 1.67×10-3 mm/s in a plasma torch at 2200°C for 1000s, decreased by 71.0% as compared with the C/C-SiC composite with the same Weigang Zhang State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Changming Xie State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Xi Wei State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China Min Ge State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Complex Systems, Institute of Process Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China