Heat insulation and ablation resistance performance of continuous fiber reinforced composites with integrated gradient fabric

Abstract The continuous fiber reinforced porous resin‐based composites with integrated gradient fabric (CPIGF) were successfully prepared. From the bottom to the top surface, the fiber volume fraction of the integrated fabric gradually increased, as well as the fabric architecture changed, meanwhile the porosity of the resin gradually decreased. The temperature in the inner composite increased quite slowly during ablation, and the linear ablation rate ranged from 0.019 mm/s to 0.029 mm/s. The simulation results showed that the good heat insulation capacity of CPIGFs was attributed to the anisotropy properties of the fabric architecture. The microstructure analysis showed that the good ablation resistance came from both the thermal expansion of the integrated gradient fabric and the densification of the zone with 3D orthogonal woven fabric. This work is helpful for designing thermal protection materials having both heat insulation and ablation resistance for hypersonic aircrafts.