Optimized ablation resistance behavior and mechanism of C/SiC composites with high thermal conductive channels

Aimed to enhance the high-temperature service performance of C/SiC composites in high-speed aircraft thermal protection system, in this article, pitch-based carbon fibers were used to construct high thermal conductive channels to improve the heat transfer capability of C/SiC composites. The results revealed that the as-prepared composites equipped with 4.7 times higher thermal conductivity than that of conventional C/SiC composites. The oxyacetylene flame ablation test confirmed that the constructed high thermal conductive channels, which quickly conducted the heat flow from the ablation center area to other areas is the main reason of as-prepared composites exhibiting a very impressive ablation resistance property. Briefly, the ablation temperature of the as-prepared composite surfaces considerably dropped by about 300°C compared with conventional C/SiC composites, while the linear ablation rate and mass ablation rate of the composites are 1.27 μm/s and 0.61 mg/s respectively, which is superior to many recent reports, demonstrating that this article provides a simple but highly effective measure to improve the ablation resistance property of C/SiC composites.