C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites were fabricated by polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) with a preform of Cf/ZrB2. The carbon fibers and the resin carbon were coated with ceramic layer after PIP in the composites. The composite presents a pseudo-plastic fracture due to deflection of cracks and pullout of fibers. The composite has a higher bending strength by this method in comparison with the conventional PIP process due to fewer heat treatment cycles. The static oxidation test shows that the mass loss of the composites is no more than 1% after 20 min oxidation at 1100 °C. The “core-shell” structure between ZrC-SiC ceramic and other phases plays a positive role in preventing the inward diffusion of oxygen. The ablation resistance of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite samples was tested using a plasma generator. After ablation for 120 s, the mass and linear ablation rates of the composites are 4.65 mg cm-2 s-1 and 2.46 µm s-1, respectively. The short carbon layer shows a better ablation resistance than the nonwoven carbon fabric layer after the ceramic coating is peeled off because of its higher ceramic content.
Carbon/Carbon (C/C) composites are one of the most promising materials for high temperature structural applications due to their low coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE), high thermal conductivity, excellent strength at high temperature, good ablation resistance and good thermal shock resistance[1,2,3]. They have been widely used in high temperature structural components for space vehicles, such as rocket nozzles, nose tips, aeronautic jet engines, and leading edges. However, poor oxidation resistance (above 500 °C) and a severe ablative environment (high-pressure gas and high velocity grains) have greatly restricted their high temperature applications[4,5,6,7,8,9,10]. Therefore, effective thermal protection is essential when they are used in an oxygen environment at high temperature.
The introduction of Zr-based ceramics (such as ZrB2 and ZrC) and SiC into C/C composites can improve the thermal protection of the C/C composites because they can form a less volatile and high melting point Zr-Si-O glass layer[11,12,13,14,15,16]. Reactive melt infiltration can introduce Zr-based ceramic and SiC into the C/C composites and improve their ablation resistance[10,17,18]. However, the composites prepared exhibit poor mechanical properties due to the carbothermic reaction between the carbon substrate and the raw powders (Si, Zr, etc.). Powder slurry infiltration (PSI) is a low cost method of introducing ceramic phase into the composite, but the poor distribution of ceramic phases cannot be resolved as yet, especially for large components[11,19,20,21]. It is also difficult to fabricate complex shapes or large components by hot-press and sinter processing[22]. In comparison, polymer infiltration and pyrolysis (PIP) is an ideal modification method because the use of organic precursor to introduce ceramics into C/C composites could improve not only the content but also the distribution homogeneity of ceramics in the composite[23,24,25,26,27]. However, it remains a challenge to reduce the number of PIP cycles when a large amount of Zr-based ceramics is introduced into C/C composite. It is believed that dozens of the heat treatment cycles degrade the flexural strength due to the reaction between the precursor and the carbon fibers.
In previous study[28], we reported a novel C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite fabricated by PIP using a carbon fiber preform containing ceramic powders (Cf/ZrB2). This method uses less heat treatment cycles than the conventional PIP process. Therefore, the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite prepared is supposed to have a higher bending strength due to less carbothermic reaction between the precursor and the carbon fibers. The ZrC-SiC ceramics and other phases form the “core-shell” structures, which are believed to play a positive role in oxidation resistance. Although many data have been reported in literature on thermal protection of the composites, there are few reports about the effect of the “core-shell” structure on oxidation resistance. Because the Cf/ZrB2 preform is composed of alternating layers of the nonwoven carbon fabric and the short carbon fibers in the needled direction, the ablation characteristics of the composite in both layers are different and should be studied.
In the present work, the microstructure, mechanical behavior, oxidation resistance and ablation characteristics of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites in the special layers were investigated to further assess the usage of the materials.
The detailed fabrication process of the Cf/ZrB2 preform and the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite is shown in our previous study[28]. The C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites were fabricated by the following three-step method. Firstly, the Cf/ZrB2 preform with a density of 0.50 g/cm3 was prepared by a repeated spraying-needling process. Secondly, the resin carbon was introduced into the Cf/ZrB2 preform to increase its density by vacuum impregnation and carbonization. The porous C/C-ZrB2 composites with a density of 1.49 g/cm3 were obtained. Finally, the mixture of ZrC-SiC ceramics was introduced into the as-prepared C/C-ZrB2 composites by PIP. This infiltration-pyrolysis process was repeated 6-8 times until the density of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites reached 1.98 g/cm3. The C/C-ZrC-SiC composite fabricated by pure PIP (17-20 cycles) was used as a control group.
The flexural strength was obtained by using a three-point bending test (Instron-3369) on five specimens of 4 mm × 10 mm × 55 mm with a span of 48 mm and a loading velocity of 0.5 mm/min. The oxidation resistance of samples was evaluated by the static oxidation in a muffle furnace. The samples were put into the furnace and heated at 1100 °C for several minutes. After cooling down to room temperature, the samples were measured using an electrical balance with the accuracy of 0.1 mg. The ablation resistance of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite samples of a cylindrical shape (Ø 30 mm × 10 mm) was tested using a plasma generator (Multiplaz, 3500). The erosion direction of the flame and the axial orientation of the samples were parallel to the Z direction of the carbon felts (the needled direction). The working current and voltage of the plasma generator were 6 A and 160 ± 1 V, respectively. The inner diameter of the plasma gun tip was 2 mm, and the distance between the gun tip and the sample was roughly 10 mm. The samples were exposed to the flame, and the maximum temperature of the ablation center reached up to 2300 °C, which was measured by an optical pyrometer. Both the linear and mass ablation rates were calculated based on the mean thickness and mass change in the ablated center of the samples before and after ablation. More than five tests were conducted for each sample, and the presented results are the averages of these ablation rate measurements. The bulk density of the samples was measured using the Archimedes method. The microstructure of the composites was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM, FEI Nova Nano SEM230), backscattered electron imaging analysis (BSE, FEI Nova Nano SEM230), X-ray diffraction (XRD, Rigaku Dmax/2550VB + 18KW) and electron probe microanalysis (EPMA, JEOL JXA-8530F).
Fig.1. Microstructure of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites: (a) SEM image of surface; (b) BSE image of surface; (c) the outside ceramic coating on the nonwoven carbon fabric layer; (d) the outside ceramic coating on the short carbon fibers layer; (e) nonwoven carbon fabric layer; (f) short carbon fibers layer.
Fig.2. XRD patterns of the ZrC-SiC precursors heat-treated at 1700 °C (a) and surface of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites (b).
XRD pattern of SiC-ZrC precursors heat-treated at 1700 °C is shown in
The stress-displacement curve (
Fig.4. Stress displacement curves of bending load for C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite and C/C-ZrC-SiC composite.
Fig.5. Fracture surfaces the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite: (a) BSE image of the fracture surface of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites; (b) higher magnification image.
Isothermal oxidation tests at 1100 °C and 1500 °C in static air are often used to assess the oxidation resistance of the coating samples. As for matrix modification in this study, the temperature (1100 °C) when the oxides cannot heal the cracks or pores is adopted in order to understand the effect of structure defect on oxidation resistance.
Fig.6. Isothermal oxidation test of the C/C and C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite at 1100 °C in static air.
The microstructure of C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites after oxidation at 1100 °C is shown in
Fig.7. 7. Microstructure of the surface of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composites after oxidation: (a) surface; (b) high magnification image of the area framed by white line in (a); (c) cross section; (d) line scan of EDS shows the diffusion of O2 in ceramic matrices.
The ablation resistance of the composite samples was tested for 120 s at over 2300 °C using a plasma generator as the ablation equipment. It is clear that these samples exhibit good ablation resistance (
Fig. 9. Microstructure of the ablated center of the composites after 120 s ablation: (a) surface. (b) cross section.
Fig. 9 shows the microstructural features of the ablated center of the composites after 120 s ablation. The surface is covered with a glass layer, which is composed of ZrO2 and SiO2 due to the oxidation of ZrB2, ZrC and SiC. It is known that SiO2 has a low melting point (<1700 °C), which is far below the ablation temperature. However, the glass layer is not destroyed, because the SiO2 reacts with ZrO2 to form high temperature Zr-Si-O glass according to SiO2-ZrO2 phase diagram[26]. The Zr-O-Si glass covers on the composites, and prevent them from corrosion because of its higher melting point. Many small pores are observed in the glass layer, because the gaseous products (CO
It is noted that the composite is composed of alternating layers of the nonwoven carbon fabric and the short carbon fibers in the needled direction (
Fig.10. Schematic diagram of the ablation test: (a) C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite; (b) ablation in nonwoven carbon fabric layer; (c) ablation in short carbon fibers layer.
Although some glassy residues remain on the surface after the ceramic coating is destroyed, these glassy residues cannot form a continuous ceramic layer (
The C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite was fabricated by PIP with a preform of Cf/ZrB2. The carbon fibers and the resin carbon were coated with ceramic layer after PIP in the composites. The composite presents a pseudo-plastic fracture due to deflection of cracks and pullout of fibers. In comparison with pure PIP, the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite possesses a higher bending strength, and the bending strength is 145.3 MPa. The ZrC-SiC coating in the “core-shell” structure improves oxidation resistance of the C/C-ZrB2-ZrC-SiC composite. After 20 min static oxidation in the air at 1100 °C, the mass loss is no more than 1%. After ablation for 120 s, the mass and linear ablation rates of the samples are 4.65 mg cm-2 s-1 and 2.46 µm s-1, respectively. The short carbon layer shows a better ablation resistance than the nonwoven carbon fabric layer after the ceramic coating is peeled off because of its higher ceramic content.
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.