Effect of environment atmosphere on thermal shock resistance of the ZrB2–SiC–graphite composite

•The heating thermal shock experiment was tested by the METS set-up.•The environment atmosphere effect on thermal shock of ZSG composite was investigated.•The low oxygen partial oxidation of ZSG composite was analyzed and discussed.

The thermal shock resistance of the ZrB2–SiC–graphite composite was evaluated by measuring the retention of the flexural strength after the electrical resistance heating to the temperature ranging from 1000 °C up to 2500 °C. The experiment was operated in two different environment atmospheres (pure oxygen and low oxygen partial pressure which mixed O2 and Ar with 1:9) at total pressure 2000 Pa. The residual strength for the specimen decreased gradually as the temperature increased up to 2200 °C, and it was slightly higher when heated in low oxygen partial pressure environment than in pure oxygen. In contrast to the specimen heated in low oxygen partial pressure environment, the residual strength for the specimen in pure oxygen increased steeply as the temperature increased from 1600 °C up to 1800 °C. The analysis of the SEM observations combined with EDS confirmed that the surface oxidation played a positive role in the thermal shock resistance of the ZrB2–SiC–graphite composite with different environment atmospheres. The results here pointed out a potential method for charactering the effect of environment atmosphere on thermal shock resistance of the ZrB2–SiC–graphite composite.