Effect of temperature gradient on the ablation and flexural behavior of C/C-ZrC composites

•The ablation condition was specially designed to investigare the effect of temperature gradient on the ablation and flexural behavior of the prepared C/C-ZrC composites.•During ablation, the sample not only suffers the gradient temperature ablation but also withstands flexural load caused by the high-speed airflow scouring.•The volume ablation rate of the C/C-ZrC composites was 0.06 mm3/s, which was only 6.81 % of the rate of the C/C. A new ablation condition was designed to investigate the effect of temperature gradient on the ablation and flexural behavior of the C/C-ZrC composites. The sample not only suffers the gradient temperature ablation ranging from 1000 to 2000 ℃ but withstands flexural load caused by the high-speed airflow scouring. The volume ablation rate of the C/C-ZrC was 0.06 mm3/s, which was only 6.81 % of the rate of the C/C. The volume change caused by ZrC→ZrO2 together with the ZrO2 crystalline transformation was beneficial for releasing internal stress, thereby contributing to the higher flexural strength retention of the C/C-ZrC composites.