Ablation behavior of Csf/SiC-BN composites with polyborosilazane as sintering aids: High-temperature damage mechanism

Microstructural evolution and high-temperature ablative damage mechanism of C-sf/SiC-BN composites with and without polyborosilazane (PBSZ) as sintering aids that can convert to polymer-derived SiBCN ceramics (PDCs-SiBCN) by cross-linking and pyrolysis during sintering were studied. The density of C-sf/SiC-BN composites increases from 2.17 to 2.25 g/cm(3) with 10 wt.% sintering aids because PBSZ promotes rearrangement and redistribution of raw materials by pyrolysis during the sintering process. With the increase of carbon fiber content, ablation performance (mass ablation rate: 15.25 mg/s; linear ablation rate: 0.100 mm/s) negligibly decreases, compared to counterparts with lower fiber content (mass ablation rate: 16.53 mg/s; linear ablation rate: 0.072 mm/s) because the presence of PDCs-SiBCN partially compensates for the detrimental effect of carbon fibers on ablation performance. C-sf/SiC-BN composites with and without PBSZ show similar phase composition mainly containing quartz, amorphous SiO2, and matrix crystallization products and morphology after ablation because of similar phase composition before ablation. The ablation mechanism is oxidative corrosion and mechanical scouring and stripping.