High-temperature ablation properties of nano zirconia reinforced fused silica ceramics

Abstract The high-temperature ablation properties of nano zirconia reinforced fused silica ceramics were tested using an ultra-high-temperature oxyacetylene ablation equipment. The results show that the linear recession rate and the mass loss rate of the composite ceramics containing 10 wt% zirconia are 0.087 mm/s and 0.016 g/s at 40 s ablation time, respectively, both much lower than that (0.106 mm/s and 0.028 g/s) of the pure fused silica ceramics, indicating superior ablation resistance properties of the composite ceramics. The depth of the melting area along with the flame direction of the composite ceramics is much shallower than that of the pure samples. Moreover, the composite ceramics show excellent heat shielding properties.