Influence of ceramic thickness on residual stress and bonding strength for plasma sprayed duplex thermal barrier coating on aluminum alloy

NiCoCrAlY/8wt.%Y₂O₃–ZrO₂ coating was plasma sprayed on aluminum alloy to evaluate the effect of ceramic thickness on residual stress and bonding strength. A new stress calculation method based on Stoney equation and substrate-removal technique was proposed. Stress in both bond coat and ceramic was studied. With the increase of ceramic thickness, the residual stress in both layers was firstly compressive then turned tensile. The large thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate played an important role in residual stress formation when the ceramic was thin. However, the intrinsic deposition stress took a dominant position when the ceramic coating turned thicker. The bonding strength decreased and the location of the fractured surface moved toward the ceramic surface. The moving of the surface was mainly resulted from the variation of stress gradient and the weakness of high porosity zone near the bond coat–ceramic interface.