Ablation resistance of SiC-ZrC coating prepared by a simple two-step method on carbon fiber reinforced composites

SiC-ZrC ablation resistance coating was prepared on the surface of carbon fiber reinforced carbon (C/C) composites by simple pack cementation combined with low-cost slurry infiltration method. The results showed that SiC-ZrC coating could effectively protect C/C composites from ablation for 45s at 3723K under oxyacetylene torch. The mass and linear ablation rates (0.038±0.01mg/(scm²) and 2.42±0.15μm/s) were largely reduced compared with that of uncoated C/C composites (0.530±0.01mg/(scm²) and 1.75±0.15μm/s) after ablation for 20s. The good ablation protective ability of SiC-ZrC coating is mainly attributed to the volatilization of SiO₂ and the formation of ZrO₂.