Microstructures and ablation properties of 3D 4-directional Cf/ZrC–SiC composite in a plasma wind tunnel environment

The ablation property of a three-dimensional 4-directional Cf/ZrC–SiC composite was determined by using a plasma wind tunnel facility. The composite exhibited excellent configurational stability with surface temperature of 2400 K for 600 s. After ablation, the composite showed a mass loss rate of 7.0×10−4 g/s and a linear recession rate of 9.0×10−4 mm/s. The viscous binary glass mixture of ZrO2 and SiO2 on the surface of the composite mainly contributed to the improvement in the ablation property. After ablation, the composite showed three different zones, namely, the ablation center region, ablation transition region, and unablation region, because of the temperature and pressure gradients.