Review of High Temperature Ceramics for Aerospace Applications

This paper presents a review of high temperature ceramics research for aerospace applications. Following a brief historical perspective, the paper reviews the effort to toughen ceramics for high temperature structural applications. These include: efforts to toughen zirconia-based ceramics, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, molybdenum disilicide and zirconium diborides and carbon-based composites. The development of thermal protection systems is also reviewed within the context of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and thermal protection systems for space vehicles. The paper concludes with a final section in which the implications of the results are then discussed for the thermostructural applications of ceramics in aerospace structures.