Influence of grain size on wear behavior of SiC coating for carbon/carbon composites at elevated temperatures

• This work investigated the influence of grain size on the wear performance of SiC coating.
• The wear resistance and fracture toughness of SiC coating was improved by grain refinement.
• TiC can act as perfect heterogeneous nucleus for the nucleation and growth of β-SiC.

To improve the wear performance of SiC coating for C/C composites at elevated temperatures, the grain was refined by adding small amounts of titanium, in the raw powders for preparing this coating. The related microstructure and mechanical characteristics were investigated by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, energy dispersive spectroscopy and nano-indention. The results show that the grain size of SiC coating decreased from ∼30 μm to ∼5 μm due to the addition of grain refiner. TiC formed by reacting titanium with graphite, can act as perfect heterogeneous nucleus for the nucleation and growth of β-SiC. The wear resistance and fracture toughness of SiC coating was improved by grain refinement. However, the increasing interfaces increased the friction resistance and resulted in the high friction coefficient of fine-grained coating at room temperature. As the temperature rose, oxides layer formed on the surface of fine-grained coating, which can reduce the adhesive wear and decrease the friction coefficient. The fine-grained coating exhibited relative low friction coefficient of ∼0.41 owing to a compact silica film formed on the worn surface at 600 °C, and the wear was dominated by plastic deformation and shear of silica film. The wear of coarse-grained coating was controlled by the fracture of SiC at high temperature.