Ablation behaviour of C/C-HfC-SiC composites prepared by joint route of precursor infiltration and pyrolysis and gaseous silicon infiltration

C/C-SiC-HfC composites were fabricated by using Precursor Infiltration and Pyrolysis (PIP) combined with Gaseous Silicon Infiltration (GSI) process. Different GSI temperatures (1900 ℃ and 2100 °C) were selected. The combination of PIP and GSI could significantly reduce the preparation time of the composites. The morphology displaying a rich-Si layer was formed on the surface of the composites prepared at GSI 2100 °C. Ablation performance of the composites was investigated by oxyacetylene torch. The results showed that after ablation for 120 s, compared to the composites prepared by PIP + 1900 °C GSI, the linear and mass ablation rates of the composites fabricated by PIP + 2100 °C GSI were decreased from 8.05 μm/s to 5.06 μm/s and from 1.61 mg/s to 1.03 mg/s, respectively. The coverage of the rich-Si surface layer promoted the generation of more SiO2 during ablation, which not only benefited for decreasing the surface temperature but also contributed to the formation of H-Si-O glass and the HfO2 skeleton, thus better resisting the denudation of the oxyacetylene torch.