Effects of zirconium addition on microstructure and ablation resistance of carbon fibre reinforced carbon and SiC ceramic matrix composite prepared by reactive melt infiltration

Abstract

Carbon fibre reinforced C and SiC binary ceramic matrix composites (C/C–SiC) were fabricated by a quick and low cost reactive melt infiltration (RMI) method with Si–Zr25 and Si melts. Effects of zirconium addition in infiltrated Si melt on microstructure and ablation resistance of the composite were investigated. The composite by Si–Zr25 melt infiltration was composed of SiC, ZrC, C and a little amount of ZrSi₂ without residual silicon, overcoming the problem of residual silicon in C/C–SiC composite by Si RMI. Compared with the composite by Si melt infiltration, the ablation resistance of the composite by Si–Zr25 was greatly improved by zirconium addition due to ZrO₂ and SiO₂ protecting layer formed during ablation.

Keywords

C/C–SiC composite Microstructure Zirconium addition Reactive melt infiltration Ablation resistance

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Krenkel

: ‘Application of fiber reinforced C/C–SiC ceramic’, Ceram. Forum Int., 2003, 80, (8), 31–38.

Manuel

: ‘Advanced ceramic materials for high temperature applications’, Adv. Eng. Mater., 2006, 8, (8), 693–703.

Schulte-Fischedick

, Zern

, Mayer

, Ruhle

, Frieß

, Krenkel

and Kochendorfer

: ‘The morphology of silicon carbide in C/C–SiC composites’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 2002, A332, 146–152.

Trantina

and Mehan

: ‘High-temperature time-dependent strength of an Si/SiC composite’, J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 1977, 3, (60), 177–178.

Singh

and Behrendt

: ‘Reactive melt infiltration of silicon–molybdenum alloys into microporous carbon preforms’, Mater. Sci. Eng. A, 1995, A194, 193–200.

Singh

and Behrendt

: ‘Reactive melt infiltration of silicon–niobium alloys in microporous carbons’, J. Mater. Res., 1994, 7, 1701–1709.

Esfehanian

, Unster

, Moztarzadeh

and Heinrich

: ‘Development of a high temperature Cf/XSi2–SiC (X = Mo, Ti) composite via reactive melt infiltration’, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc., 2007, 27, 1229–1235.

Tong

, Bai

, Zhang

and Chen

: ‘C/C–SiC composite prepared by Si–10Zr alloyed melt infiltration’, Ceram. Int., 2012, 38, (4), 3301–3307.

Wang

, Zhu

, Zhang

and Cheng

: ‘C/C–SiC–ZrC composites fabricated by reactive melt infiltration with Si_0.₈₇Zr_0.₁₃alloy’, Ceram. Int., 2012, 38, 4337–4343.

10.

, Zhang

, Cheng

and Wang

: ‘Fabrication of 2D C/ZrC–SiC composite and its structural evolution under high-temperature treatment up to 1800°C’, Ceram. Int., 2009, 35, 2831–2836.

11.

Padmavathi

, Kumari

, Bhanu Prasad

, Subrahmanyama

and Ray

: ‘Processing of carbon-fiber reinforced (SiC+ZrC) mini-composites by soft-solution approach and their characterization’, Ceram. Int., 2009, 35, 3447–3454.

12.

Jiang

, Xiong

, Chen

, Xiao

and Huang

: ‘Influence factors of C/C–SiC dual matrix composites prepared by reactive melt infiltration’, Mater. Des., 2009, 30, 3738–3742.

13.

Liang

and Che

: ‘Thermodynamic data notebook of inorganic’; 1993, Shengyang, Northeast University Press.

14.

Wang

, Xu

, Wang

, Cheng

and Zhang

: ‘Effects of TaC addition on the ablation resistance of C/SiC’, Mater. Lett., 2010, 64, 2068–2071.

15.

Fang

, Chen

, Song

and Sun

: ‘Morphology and microstructure of 2.5 dimension C/SiC composites ablated by oxyacetylene torch’, Ceram. Int., 2009, 35, 1249–1253.