• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.309-314
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• 2013

Highly ablation resistant carbon nanotube (CNT)-phenolic composites were fabricated by the addition of low concentrations of CNT nanofiller. Tensile and compressive properties as well as ablative resistance were significantly improved by the addition of only 0.1 and 0.3 wt% of uniformly dispersed CNTs. An oxygen-kerosene-flame torch and a field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) were used to evaluate the ablative properties and microstructures of these CNT-phenolic composites. Thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA) revealed that the ablation rate was lower for the 0.3 wt% CNT-phenolic composites than for neat phenolic or the composite with 0.1 wt% CNT. Ablative mechanisms for all three materials were investigated using this TGA in conjunction with microstructural studies using a FE-SEM. The microstructural studies revealed that CNT acted as an ablation resistant phase at high temperatures, and that the uniformity of dispersion of the CNT played an important role in this resistance to ablation.

• Composites Research
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• v.33 no.4
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• pp.205-212
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• 2020

In this study, HfC was coated on two types of carbon/carbon composites coated with SiC by vacuum plasma spraying(VPS). The experiment was performed using a plasma wind tunnel with heat flux of 5.06 MW/㎡ for 120 s heat flux before and after the coating. The mass ablation rate was calculated through the mass change before and after the test, and the length change was measured by using calipers and high speed camera. The oxidation/ablation behavior were observed by FE-SEM with EDS analysis of the specimens cross section. The plasma wind tunnel test results showed that the coated specimens had low weight loss and length change, and high oxidation/ablation resistance. However, two types of the specimens tested under the same conditions were different in the ablation behavior and ablation rate, and it was evaluated that the cylindrical type had higher oxidation/ablation resistance.