LAUSR

Abstract To improve the ablation resistance of carbon/carbon composites at the temperature above 2000 K, a ZrB 2 -SiC-ZrC ultra-high temperature ceramic coating was prepared by combination of supersonic atmosphere plasma spray (SAPS) and reaction melt infiltration. The micro-holes in ZrB 2 -Si-ZrC coating prepared by SAPS were effectively filled and the compactness and interface compatibility between the coating and C/C composites was improved through the reaction melt infiltration process. The ultra-high temperature ceramic coating exhibited good ablation resistance under oxyacetylene torch ablation above 2000 K. After ablation for 120 s, the mass and linear ablation rates of the ZrB 2 -SiC-ZrC coated C/C samples were only −0.016 × 10 −3  g/s and 1.30 µm/s, respectively. Good ablation resistance of the ultra-high temperature ceramic coating is mainly attributed to the dense coating structure and the improvement of interface compatibility between the coating and C/C composites.