Assessing Degradation of Advanced Coatings for Carbon/Carbon Composites

Carbon/carbon (C/C) composites are a well-utilized material system for hot structures to enable hypersonic flight. However, C/C materials are susceptible to attack by environmental degradation mechanisms, notably oxidation, which can limit the durability of components resulting in premature failure. Environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) have been developed to mitigate deleterious oxidation. Coating compositions based on silicon carbide (SiC) offer promise as a protective coating material for C/C composites. Under particular hypersonic flight conditions, a passivating silica scale can form at the surface of the EBC, acting as a barrier that can protect the underlying coating and substrate. However, the transition from passive to active oxidation, which varies with temperature and pressure, causes the formation of gaseous SiO that volatilizes leading to detrimental consumption of the SiC coating. In this work, arc-jet testing of SiC-based coatings developed to protect Advanced C/C-6 (ACC-6) was performed under a range of conditions to replicate varying oxidation conditions. In-situ optical emission spectroscopic measurements of the gas-surface interactions were collected and evaluated to render compositional degradation of the coating and underlying composite during arc-jet testing. Specimens were evaluated before, during and after arc-jet testing using destructive and non-destructive materials characterization methods, including optical and scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy.