Effects of Carbon Source on Ablation Property of C/C–ZrC–SiC Composites and SiC Coating under Plasma Flame

C/C–ZrC–SiC composites with different carbon sources (glucose, sucrose, and phenolic resin) were fabricated by precursor infiltration and pyrolysis. The effects of the structure of carbon matrix on the microstructure and ablation resistance were investigated. All three C/C–ZrC–SiC composites exhibited good ablation resistance under the plasma flame above 2300 °C, and the C/C–ZrC–SiC composites with phenolic resin has the highest thermal conductivity of 13.285 W/(m·K), as its compact pyrolyzed carbon had sealed defects and changed matrix structure. It also showed superior ablation resistance, and the mass and linear ablation rates are − 2.07 mg·s-1 and 1.02 μm·s-1, respectively. Besides, the SiC-coated C/C–ZrC–SiC composites displayed good ablation resistance under long-term plasma flame, among them the SiC-coated C/C–ZrC–SiC composites with phenolic resin has the best mass and linear ablation rates as 0.55 mg·s-1 and – 0.1 μm·s-1, respectively.