Thermal Performance and Ablation Characteristics of C/C-SiC for Thermal Protection of Hypersonic Vehicle

Abstract A small-scale plasma ablation facility was employed to test the C/C-SiC composite material for investigating the thermal performance and ablation characteristics under two heat flux conditions, 3593.54 kW·m-2 and 5644.86 kW·m-2. The morphology of post-test specimens was analyzed with the ablation rates calculated. The average mass ablation rates of two group specimens were 0.01735 and 0.10620 g·s-1 respectively with average linear ablation rate of 0.00680 and 0.09407 mm·s-1. Specimen surface could be divided into three regions with typical layered structure characteristics. For the stagnation point ablation test, the structural deformation in the ablation surface area featured in vertical layering and lateral regionality, forming an ablation pit near the stagnation point. In the center region, sublimation occured primarily, accompanied by a serious jet scouring of the molten liquid phase, as well as a small amount of oxidation reaction; Jet erosion with thermal sublimation was the main factor for the mass loss in the transitional region; Thermochemical reactions were mainly carried out in the marginal region. The SiO2 generated from the thermochemical reaction of the material filled the interspace well and prevented the thermochemical reaction from penetrating deeper through the crack. The protective layer in the molten state with high viscosity reduced the damage of the high-speed jet impact material.