Introduction to H2020 project C ³ HARME – next generation ceramic composites for combustion harsh environment and space

There is an increasing demand for advanced materials with enhanced temperature capability in highly corrosive environments, for instance enable space vehicles to resist several launches and re-entries. The EU-funded project C3HARME aims at combining the best features of CMCs and UHTCs to design, develop, manufacture and qualify a new class of Ultra-High Temperature Ceramic Matrix Composite (UHTCMCs) with self-healing capabilities. Applications selected to implement the new materials are near-zero erosion nozzles and near-zero ablation thermal protection systems. This paper aims at giving an introduction to the challenges addressed by C3HARME project including (i) the integration between well-established and novel techniques for CMCs and UHTCs production, (ii) the need for very high temperature characterisation, (iii) the meaning of self-healing capability for UHTCMCs, (iv) the contribution of modelling to materials development and (V) the investigation of the microstructure/thermo-mechanical property correlations.