Ablation behavior and mechanism of SiCnw modified SiC-ZrC coating for graphite under a plasma ablation flame

The intrinsic brittleness and low bonding strength of SiC-ZrC coatings to the graphite severely limit the ablation performance. Herein, SiC nanowires (SiCnw) were introduced between pre-oxidized graphite and coatings. The brittleness of coatings was reduced and the bonding strength was increased from 5.49 ± 0.88 MPa to 8.33 ± 0.65 MPa by SiCnw. Both simulation and experimental results show SiCnw also worked as thermal conduction channels to improve the ablation resistance. After plasma ablation for 120 s, the ablation rates of SiCnw/SiC-ZrC coated graphite were 0.315 mg/s and 0.217 µm/s, respectively, which are much lower than those of pure graphite and SiC-ZrC coated graphite.