Study on plasma ablation behavior of C/C composite materials under particle erosion

Abstract

In order to explore the ablation law and characteristics of carbon/carbon composite materials on the surface thermal protection of hypersonic vehicles under the condition of particle erosion, the ablation test of a 4D C/C composite was carried out based on a small plasma simulated ablation test system. Four sets of experiments were designed according to different temperature and particle concentration. After the test, two kinds of ablation rate were measured, and the microscopic ablation morphology was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the ablation behavior was analyzed. The results show that, under the equivalent test conditions, the rate of jet temperature increases, and the material ablation rate increases. With the increase of particle concentration, the two kinds of ablation rate of materials increased, the maximum mass ablation rate was 0.0363 g·s−1, and the line ablation rate was 0.053 mm·s−1. The temperature affects the thermal erosion rate of the material, while the particle mainly causes mechanical erosion. The particle has a coupling effect of heat transfer and mechanical destruction on the material, and the material ablation is intensified. Moreover, due to the strong corrosion resistance of carbon fiber, the overall corrosion resistance of materials has obvious anisotropy.