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This work employed an inductively coupled plasma wind tunnel to study the dynamic oxidation mechanisms of carbon fiber reinforced SiC matrix composite (Cf/SiC) in high-enthalpy and high-speed plasmas. The results highlighted a transition of passive/active oxidations of SiC at 800-1600 ℃ and 1-5 kPa. Specially, the active oxidation led to the corrosion of the SiC coating and interruption of the SiO2 growth. The transition borders of active/passive oxidations were thus defined with respect to oxidation temperature and partial pressure of atomic O in the high-enthalpy and high-speed plasmas. In the transition and passive domains, the SiC dissipation was negligible. By multiple dynamic oxidations of Cf/SiC in the domains, the SiO2 thickness was not monotonously increased due to the competing mechanisms of passive oxidation of SiC and dissipation of SiO2. In addition, the mechanical properties of the SiC coating/matrix and the Cf/SiC were maintained after long-term dynamic oxidations, which suggested an excellent thermal stability of Cf/SiC serving in thermal protection systems (TPSs) of reusable hypersonic vehicles.


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Dynamic oxidation mechanism of carbon fiber reinforced SiC matrix composite in high-enthalpy and high-speed plasmas

Show Author's information Lingwei YANGa( )Xueren XIAOaLiping LIUa,b( )Jie LUOaKai JIANGcXinxing HANaChanghao ZHAOaJun ZHANGaGuolin WANGa
Hypervelocity Aerodynamics Institute, China Aerodynamics Research and Development Center, Mianyang 621000, China
Science and Technology on Thermostructural Composite Materials Laboratory, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Shandong Research and Design Institute of Industrial Ceramics, Co., Ltd., Zibo 255000, China

Abstract

This work employed an inductively coupled plasma wind tunnel to study the dynamic oxidation mechanisms of carbon fiber reinforced SiC matrix composite (Cf/SiC) in high-enthalpy and high-speed plasmas. The results highlighted a transition of passive/active oxidations of SiC at 800-1600 ℃ and 1-5 kPa. Specially, the active oxidation led to the corrosion of the SiC coating and interruption of the SiO2 growth. The transition borders of active/passive oxidations were thus defined with respect to oxidation temperature and partial pressure of atomic O in the high-enthalpy and high-speed plasmas. In the transition and passive domains, the SiC dissipation was negligible. By multiple dynamic oxidations of Cf/SiC in the domains, the SiO2 thickness was not monotonously increased due to the competing mechanisms of passive oxidation of SiC and dissipation of SiO2. In addition, the mechanical properties of the SiC coating/matrix and the Cf/SiC were maintained after long-term dynamic oxidations, which suggested an excellent thermal stability of Cf/SiC serving in thermal protection systems (TPSs) of reusable hypersonic vehicles.

Keywords: mechanical property, plasma wind tunnel, ceramic matrix composite, oxidation mechanism, thermal protection system (TPS)

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Publication history

Received: 05 April 2021
Revised: 02 September 2021
Accepted: 27 September 2021
Published: 11 January 2022
Issue date: February 2022

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© The Author(s) 2021.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 11902333 and 51972027) and the CARDC Fundamental and Frontier Technology Research Fund.

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