Integration of thermal protection and structural health monitoring for carbon fiber reinforced SiBCN composites with SiC coating enhanced interfacial performance

Carbon fiber (CF) reinforced SiBCN composites were generally considered as key candidates for thermal protection under severe aerodynamic heating in aerospace due to their excellent high-temperature properties, but they were also faced with challenges in stably monitoring the structural integrity of themselves under extreme conditions. Herein, with the introduction of SiC coating, multifunctional CF-SiC/SiBCN composites were fabricated which integrated functions of the thermal protection and the structural health monitoring. Compared to the untreated CF/SiBCN composites, the stability of sensing of CF-SiC/SiBCN composites was greatly improved and the sensitivity of CF-SiC/SiBCN composites maintained at a high level with a gauge factor of 652.65. Furthermore, additional researches revealed that the CF-SiC/SiBCN composites enjoyed a high compressive strength (155.33 MPa), a light weight (1.07-1.61 g/cm(3)), and a relatively low thermal conductivity (4.02 W/(m.K)), which showed a potentiality of CF-SiC/SiBCN composites to be applied as multifunctional structural components in thermal protection systems.