Ablative properties of laminated ZrB2-SiC ceramic modified by SiC whisker in oxyacetylene environment

Abstract To improve the long-term service of existing laminated ceramics at ultra-high temperature, laminated ZrB2-SiC/SiCw (ZSS) ceramic was prepared by hot-pressing with SiCw (SiC-whisker) as interface layer. After ablated in oxyacetylene at 3000 °C for 100 s, the structure of ZSS remained intact and the linear and mass ablation rates were 0.12 ± 0.03 μm s−1 and 0.43 ± 0.09 mg s−1, respectively. Such excellent ablation resistance of ZSS was attributed to the reduction of the surface temperature and the formation of SiO2 layer by SiC whisker, which resulted in prominent oxidation protection and strong bonding strength at interface.