Influence of Bondcoat Spray Process on Lifetime of Suspension Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

Development of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) manufactured by suspension plasma spraying (SPS) is of high commercial interest as SPS has been shown capable of producing highly porous columnar microstructures similar to the conventionally used electron beam–physical vapor deposition. However, lifetime of SPS coatings needs to be improved further to be used in commercial applications. The bondcoat microstructure as well as topcoat–bondcoat interface topography affects the TBC lifetime significantly. The objective of this work was to investigate the influence of different bondcoat deposition processes for SPS topcoats. In this work, a NiCoCrAlY bondcoat deposited by high velocity air fuel (HVAF) was compared to commercial vacuum plasma-sprayed NiCoCrAlY and PtAl diffusion bondcoats. All bondcoat variations were prepared with and without grit blasting the bondcoat surface. SPS was used to deposit the topcoats on all samples using the same spray parameters. Lifetime of these samples was examined by thermal cyclic fatigue testing. Isothermal heat treatment was performed to study bondcoat oxidation over time. The effect of bondcoat deposition process and interface topography on lifetime in each case has been discussed. The results show that HVAF could be a suitable process for bondcoat deposition in SPS TBCs.     

Microstructure Evolution and Interface Stability of Thermal Barrier Coatings with Vertical Type Cracks in Cyclic Thermal Exposure

In this study, the effects of intrinsic feature of microstructure in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with and without vertical cracks on the microstructure and mechanical properties were investigated in cyclic thermal exposure. The hardness values of TBCs with vertical cracks were higher than those without vertical cracks, showing a good agreement with microstructure. The TBC prepared without vertical cracks using the 204-NS was delaminated after 250 cycles in the cyclic thermal exposure test. The TBCs with and without vertical cracks prepared with 204 C-NS and the TBC with vertical cracks prepared with 204 NS showed a sound condition without any cracking at the interface or spalling of top coat. After the thermal exposure of 381 cycles, the hardness values were increased in the survived TBC specimens, and the thicknesses of TGO layer for the TBCs with 204 C-NS and 204 NS were measured as in the ranges of 5-9 and 3-7 μm, respectively. In the thermal shock test, the advantage of vertical cracks for thermal durability of TBC could be well investigated, showing relatively longer sustained cycles in the TBCs with vertical cracks. The TBCs with vertical cracks are more efficient in improving thermal durability than those without vertical cracks in cyclic thermal exposure.     

Thermal stability and mechanical properties of thick thermal barrier coatings with vertical type cracks

The thermal stability and failure mechanism of thick thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with and without vertical type cracks were investigated through the cyclic thermal exposure and thermal-shock tests. The TBC systems with thickness of about 2000 µm in the top coat were prepared by an air plasma spray (APS) on the bond coat of about 150 µm in thickness prepared by APS. The adhesive strength values of the as-prepared TBCs with and without vertical type cracks were determined to be 24.7 and 11.0 MPa, respectively, indicating the better interface stability in the TBC with vertical type cracks. The TBC with vertical type cracks shows a better thermal durability than that without vertical type cracks in the thermal cyclic exposure and thermal-shock tests. The hardness values of the as-prepared TBCs with and without vertical type cracks were found to be 6.6 and 5.3 GPa, respectively, which were increased to 9.5 and 5.5 GPa, respectively, after the cyclic thermal exposure tests. These results indicate that the vertical type cracks developed in the top coat are important in improving the lifetime performance of thick TBC in high temperature environment.     

Evolution of Residual Stresses in PS-PVD Thermal Barrier Coatings on Thermal Cycling

Plasma spray-physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) is an advanced technique to fabricate quasi-columnar structured thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with excellent thermal cyclic lifetime. In this study, PS-PVD TBCs were investigated via burner rig test. The residual stresses in both of the topcoat layer and the thermally grown oxide (TGO) scale were measured non-destructively using Raman spectroscopy and Cr³⁺ photoluminescence piezo-spectroscopy, respectively. Evolution of the microstructures and distribution of residual stresses in such kind structured TBCs before and after thermal cycling test were investigated. The accumulated tensile stress in the as-sprayed ceramic topcoat changed to compressive state after 100 cycles and then gradually increased. In addition, the mapping compressive stresses in the TGO measured through the ceramic topcoat surface decreased rapidly and then essentially maintained at a relatively stable state with further testing. Moreover, the pre-heating of the bondcoat could significantly affect the stress distribution in the TGO, in contrast, no obviously influence on the stresses in the YSZ topcoat.     

Analysis of thermoelastic characteristics for vertical-cracked thermal barrier coatings through mathematical approaches

Thermoelastic characteristics of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with vertical cracks were analyzed through mathematical approaches to investigate the thermoelastic behaviors of TBCs in a service temperature. TriplexPro?-200 system was applied to prepare the relatively dense TBC using METECO 204NS powder. The microstructure of top coat in the TBC was just controlled to create vertical type cracks by reheating without powder feeding in same equipment and rapid cooling process. A couple of governing partial differential equations were derived based on the thermoelastic theory, and a finite volume model was developed to the governing equations to evaluate the thermoelastic characteristics, such as temperature distribution profile, displacement, and stress, inducing a thermal fatigue. For the specimen with two or more vertical type cracks, smaller displacement appears to longitudinal direction and larger displacement to radial direction as the number of crack increases. In the longitudinal stress distribution profiles to z-direction, the tensile stress at the interface between the bond coat and the substrate converts into the compressive stress when the specimen has vertical cracks more than two, while larger magnitude undulation develops for the specimen with smaller number of crack in the radial stress distribution profiles. The results obtained demonstrate that multiple vertical cracks enhance the thermal durability and extend the lifetime of TBCs.     

Variation of Thermal Barrier Coating Lifetime Characteristics with Thermal Durability Evaluation Methods

The thermal durability of thermal barrier coating systems (TBCs) obtained using feedstock powders with different purity and phase content was investigated by thermal shock testing with different cycle times, including the effects on the sintering and phase transformation behaviors. Four 8 wt.% yttria-stabilized zirconia powders, with regular purity (TC1), high purity (TC2 and TC3), and without monoclinic phase (TC4), were employed to prepare the topcoat of TBC by atmospheric plasma spray on a NiCoCrAlY bondcoat deposited by high velocity oxy-fuel. The microstructure and phase stability of the topcoats affected the TBCs’ lifetime in the short-term (1 h) and long-term (24 h) furnace cyclic test (FCT) at 1100 °C and jet engine thermal shock (JETS) test. In the short-term FCT and JETS tests, in which coatings are severely subjected to thermal stress, the TBCs’ lifetime is most affected by the microstructure of the topcoat. The coating layer with the lowest monoclinic phase in the as-sprayed state showed the lowest phase-transformation characteristics in the isothermal oxidation test (1400 °C). These properties resulted in the best lifetime in the long-term FCT. Therefore, the coating material and evaluating methods of TBCs’ life should be selected depending on the usage environment.     

Effect of Suspension Plasma-Sprayed YSZ Columnar Microstructure and Bond Coat Surface Preparation on Thermal Barrier Coating Properties

Suspension plasma spraying (SPS) is identified as promising for the enhancement of thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems used in gas turbines. Particularly, the emerging columnar microstructure enabled by the SPS process is likely to bring about an interesting TBC lifetime. At the same time, the SPS process opens the way to a decrease in thermal conductivity, one of the main issues for the next generation of gas turbines, compared to the state-of-the-art deposition technique, so-called electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD). In this paper, yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coatings presenting columnar structures, performed using both SPS and EB-PVD processes, were studied. Depending on the columnar microstructure readily adaptable in the SPS process, low thermal conductivities can be obtained. At 1100 °C, a decrease from 1.3 W m^?1 K^?1 for EB-PVD YSZ coatings to about 0.7 W m^?1 K^?1 for SPS coatings was shown. The higher content of porosity in the case of SPS coatings increases the thermal resistance through the thickness and decreases thermal conductivity. The lifetime of SPS YSZ coatings was studied by isothermal cyclic tests, showing equivalent or even higher performances compared to EB-PVD ones. Tests were performed using classical bond coats used for EB-PVD TBC coatings. Thermal cyclic fatigue performance of the best SPS coating reached 1000 cycles to failure on AM1 substrates with a β-(Ni,Pt)Al bond coat. Tests were also performed on AM1 substrates with a Pt-diffused γ-Ni/γ′-Ni₃Al bond coat for which more than 2000 cycles to failure were observed for columnar SPS YSZ coatings. The high thermal compliance offered by both the columnar structure and the porosity allowed the reaching of a high lifetime, promising for a TBC application.     

Failure Analysis of Multilayered Suspension Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings for Gas Turbine Applications

Improvement in the performance of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is one of the key objectives for further development of gas turbine applications. The material most commonly used as TBC topcoat is yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ). However, the usage of YSZ is limited by the operating temperature range which in turn restricts the engine efficiency. Materials such as pyrochlores, perovskites, rare earth garnets are suitable candidates which could replace YSZ as they exhibit lower thermal conductivity and higher phase stability at elevated temperatures. The objective of this work was to investigate different multilayered TBCs consisting of advanced topcoat materials fabricated by suspension plasma spraying (SPS). The investigated topcoat materials were YSZ, dysprosia-stabilized zirconia, gadolinium zirconate, and ceria–yttria-stabilized zirconia. All topcoats were deposited by TriplexPro-210^TM plasma spray gun and radial injection of suspension. Lifetime of these samples was examined by thermal cyclic fatigue and thermal shock testing. Microstructure analysis of as-sprayed and failed specimens was performed with scanning electron microscope. The failure mechanisms in each case have been discussed in this article. The results show that SPS could be a promising route to produce multilayered TBCs for high-temperature applications.     

Influence of Topcoat-Bondcoat Interface Roughness on Stresses and Lifetime in Thermal Barrier Coatings

Failure in Atmospheric Plasma-Sprayed (APS) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is associated with the thermo-mechanical stresses developing due to the thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer growth and thermal expansion mismatch during thermal cycling. The interface roughness has been shown to play a major role in the development of these induced stresses and lifetime of TBCs. Modeling has been shown as an effective tool to understand the effect of interface roughness on induced stresses. In the previous work done by our research group, it was observed that APS bondcoats performed better than the bondcoats sprayed with High Velocity Oxy-Fuel process which is contrary to the present literature data. The objective of this work was to understand this observed difference in lifetime with the help of finite element modeling by using real surface topographies. Different TGO layer thicknesses were evaluated. The modeling results were also compared with existing theories established on simplified sinusoidal profiles published in earlier works. It was shown that modeling can be used as an effective tool to understand the stress behavior in TBCs with different roughness profiles.     

Application of Suspension Plasma Spraying (SPS) for Manufacture of Ceramic Coatings

Conventional thermal spray processes as atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) have to use easily flowable powders with a size up to 100 μm. This leads to certain limitations in the achievable microstructural features. Suspension plasma spraying (SPS) is a new promising processing method which employs suspensions of sub-micrometer particles as feedstock. Therefore much finer grain and pore sizes as well as dense and also thin ceramic coatings can be achieved. Highly porous coatings with fine pore sizes are needed as electrodes in solid-oxide fuel cells. Cathodes made of LaSrMn perovskites have been produced by the SPS process. Their microstructural and electrochemical properties will be presented. Another interesting application is thermal barrier coating (TBC). SPS allows the manufacture of high-segmented TBCs with still relatively high porosity levels. In addition to these specific applications also the manufactures of new microstructures like nano-multilayers and columnar structures are presented.     

Improved Thermal Cycling Durability of Thermal Barrier Coatings Manufactured by PS-PVD

The plasma spray-physical vapor deposition (PS-PVD) process is a promising method to manufacture thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). It fills the gap between traditional thermal spray processes and electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD). The durability of PS-PVD manufactured columnar TBCs is strongly influenced by the compatibility of the metallic bondcoat (BC) and the ceramic TBC. Earlier investigations have shown that a smooth BC surface is beneficial for the durability during thermal cycling. Further improvements of the bonding between BC and TBC could be achieved by optimizing the formation of the thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer. In the present study, the parameters of pre-heating and deposition of the first coating layer were investigated in order to adjust the growth of the TGO. Finally, the durability of the PS-PVD coatings was improved while the main advantage of PS-PVD, i.e., much higher deposition rate in comparison to EB-PVD, could be maintained. For such coatings, improved thermal cycling lifetimes more than two times higher than conventionally sprayed TBCs, were measured in burner rigs at ~1250 °C/1050 °C surface/substrate exposure temperatures.     

Thermal Failure of Nanostructured Thermal Barrier Coatings with Cold-Sprayed Nanostructured NiCrAlY Bond Coat

Nanostructured thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) were deposited by plasma spraying using agglomerated nanostructured YSZ powder on Inconel 738 substrate with cold-sprayed nanostructured NiCrAlY powder as bond coat. The isothermal oxidation and thermal cycling tests were applied to examine failure modes of plasma-sprayed nanostructured TBCs. For comparison, the TBC consisting of conventional microstructure YSZ and conventional NiCrAlY bond coat was also deposited and subjected to the thermal shock test. The results showed that nanostructured YSZ coating contained two kinds of microstructures; nanosized zirconia particles embedded in the matrix and microcolumnar grain structures of zirconia similar to those of conventional YSZ. Although, after thermal cyclic test, a continuous, uniform thermally grown oxide (TGO) was formed, cracks were observed at the interface between TGO/BC or TGO/YSZ after thermal cyclic test. However, the failure of nanostructured and conventional TBCs mainly occurred through spalling of YSZ. Compared with conventional TBCs, nanostructured TBCs exhibited better thermal shock resistance.     

Deposition and Characteristics of Submicrometer-Structured Thermal Barrier Coatings by Suspension Plasma Spraying

In the field of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for gas turbines, suspension plasma sprayed (SPS) submicrometer-structured coatings often show unique mechanical, thermal, and optical properties compared to conventional atmospheric plasma sprayed ones. They have thus the potential of providing increased TBC performances under severe thermo-mechanical loading. Experimental results showed the capability of SPS to obtain yttria stabilized zirconia coatings with very fine porosity and high density of vertical segmentation cracks, yielding high strain tolerance, and low Young??s modulus. The evolution of the coating microstructure and properties during thermal cycling test at very high surface temperature (1400?°C) in our burner rigs and under isothermal annealing was investigated. Results showed that, while segmentation cracks survive, sintering occurs quickly during the first hours of exposure, leading to pore coarsening and stiffening of the coating. In-situ measurements at 1400?°C of the elastic modulus were performed to investigate in more detail the sintering-related stiffening.     

Recent Developments in the Field of Thermal Barrier Coatings

Conventional thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems consist of a duplex structure with a metallic bondcoat and a ceramic, heat-isolative topcoat. Several recent research activities are concentrating on developing improved bondcoat or topcoat materials; for the topcoat especially, those with reduced thermal conductivity are investigated. Using advanced topcoat materials, the ceramic coating can be further divided into layers with different functions. One example is the double-layer system in which conventional yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) is used as bottom and new materials such as pyrochlores or perovskites are used as topcoat layers. These systems demonstrated an improved temperature capability compared to standard YSZ. In addition, new functions are introduced within the TBCs. These can be sensorial properties that can be used for an improved temperature control or even for monitoring remaining lifetime. Further increased application temperatures will also lead to efforts for a further improvement of the reflectivity of the coatings to reduce the radiative heat transfer through the TBC.     

Application of Plasma-Sprayed Complex Perovskites as Thermal Barrier Coatings

In an effort to improve the performance of heat engines at high temperatures, advanced surface coatings have been developed from complex perovskites. Materials of Ba(Mg_1/3Ta_2/3)O₃ and La(Al_1/4Mg_1/2Ta_1/4)O₃ composition were synthesized and applied as ceramic topcoats of thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) in single layer and in double-layer combination with conventional yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ). Microstructural and phase analyses reveal that plasma spraying of complex perovskites is accompanied with the formation of vertical crack networks and secondary oxide phases which influence the failure mechanism of the TBCs. The low value of fracture toughness for the complex perovskites and the thermally grown oxide at the topcoat-bondcoat interface of the TBCs are, however, the major factors which lead to the coating failure on thermal cycling at about 1250 °C.     

Influence of Surface Finish on the Cyclic Oxidation Lifetime of an EB-PVD TBC, Deposited on PtAl and Pt-diffused Bondcoats

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are well established as protective systems for gas turbine hot path components, due to their ability, with substrate cooling, to reduce the maximum surface temperature experienced by the metal component. However, when subject to high temperature oxidation, cyclic heating and cooling during service, TBCs degrade in both thermal protection capability and mechanical stability as a result of a combined thickening of the alumina-thermally grown oxide and sintering of the ceramic top coat. Eventually the ceramic top coat spalls from the metallic substrates. The detailed failure mechanisms for the TBC often are complicated, reflecting a balance between defects introduced into the TBC during manufacture and service and the stored energy generated in the TBC as a result of cyclic thermal exposure. It has been shown that the surface finish influences the residual stress in the thermally grown oxide and thus the stored energy. In this study, the influence of substrate surface finish, prior to bondcoat manufacture, on the cyclic oxidation lifetime is examined. Two EB-PVD TBC systems, a zirconia 8 wt% yttria topcoat on a platinum aluminide bondcoat and a zirconia 8 wt% yttria topcoat on a platinum diffused γ+γ′ bondcoat have been studied. For these two systems, various substrate surface finishes have been investigated, including ground, grit blasted and polished and grit blasted surfaces. The lifetime data for these cyclic oxidation tests of EB-PVD TBCs on these two diffusion bondcoats, platinum aluminide and platinum diffused, on CMSX4, have been analysed statistically for the various surface finishes. It is shown that the variability in measured lifetime can be modelled using Weibull statistics. The role of surface finish on the Weibull model parameters, characteristic life (η) and Weibull modulus (β), are discussed in this paper and hence the role surface finish plays on the likelihood of early, short life, TBC failure. Based on this analysis a more optimised surface finish is recommended to extend TBC lifetimes with diffusion based bondcoats. Further, the platinum diffusion bondcoat is shown to outperform the platinum aluminide system once the substrate surface finish has been optimised.     

Thermal cycling failure of new LaMgAl11O19/YSZ double ceramic top coat thermal barrier coating systems

New LaMgAl₁₁O₁₉ (LaMA)/YSZ double ceramic top coat thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with the potential application in advanced gas-turbines and diesel engines to realize improved efficiency and durability were prepared by plasma spraying, and their thermal cycling failure were investigated. The microstructure evolutions as well as the crystal chemistry characteristics of LaMA coating which seemed to have strong influences on the thermal cycling failure of LaMA and the new double ceramic top coat TBCs based on LaMA/YSZ system were studied. For double ceramic top coat TBC system, interface modification of LaMA/YSZ by preparing thin composite coatings seemed to be more preferred due to the formations of multiple cracks during thermal cycling making the TBC to be more strain tolerant and as well as resulting in an improved thermal cycling property. The effects of the TGO stresses on the failure behavior of the TBCs were discussed through fluorescence piezo-spectroscopy analysis.     

Stress Analysis and Failure Mechanisms of Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

Yttria-stabilized zirconia coatings were deposited by plasma spraying and heat-treated at 1100 °C for 50, 100, 150, and 200 h in air, respectively. Mechanical properties including microhardness and Young’s modulus were evaluated using the nanoindentation test. Residual stresses in the ceramic topcoat and the thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer were measured using Raman spectroscopy and photoluminescence piezo-spectroscopy (PLPS) techniques, respectively. The results showed that both the modulus and hardness increased with the thermal exposure time up to 100 h and then gradually decreased. The accumulated tensile stress in the as-sprayed topcoat changed to compressive stress after thermal exposure, and the compressive stress in the topcoat increased with an increase of thermal exposure time up to 150 h. The average compressive stresses in the TGO layer were higher than that of the cross-sectional topcoat, and the measured in-plane compressive stress increased firstly and then gradually decreased with increasing exposure time. The local interface geometry strongly affect the nature and evolution of hydrostatic stresses in the TGO. Finally, the crack initiation and propagation at the topcoat/TGO/bondcoat interface has been discussed with respect to the residual stresses in the plasma-sprayed TBC system.     

Proto-TGO formation in TBC systems fabricated by spark plasma sintering

Thermal barrier coatings (TBC) are commonly used in modern gas turbines for aeronautic and energy production applications. The conventional methods to fabricate such TBCs are EB-PVD or plasma spray deposition. Recently, the spark plasma sintering (SPS) technique was used to prepare new multilayered coatings. In this study, complete thermal barrier systems were fabricated on single crystal Ni-based superalloy (AM1®) substrate in a one-step SPS process. The lifetime of TBC systems is highly dependent on its ability to form during service a dense, continuous, slow-growing alumina layer (TGO) between an underlying bond coating and a ceramic top coat. In the present paper, we show that such kind of layer (called proto-TGO in the following) can be in situ formed during the SPS fabrication of TBC systems. This proto-TGO is continuous, dense and its nature has been determined using TEM-EDS-SAD and Raman spectroscopy. This amorphous oxide layer in the as-fabricated samples transforms to α-Al₂O₃ during thermal treatment under laboratory air at 1100 °C. Oxidation kinetics during annealing are in good agreement with the formation of a protective α-Al₂O₃ layer.     

Failure Mechanism for Thermal Fatigue of Thermal Barrier Coating Systems

Thick thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), consisting of a CoNiCrAlY bond coat and yttria-partially stabilized zirconia top coat with different porosity values, were produced by air plasma spray (APS). The thermal fatigue resistance limit of the TBCs was tested by furnace cycling tests (FCT) according to the specifications of an original equipment manufacturer (OEM). The morphology, residual stresses, and micromechanical properties (microhardness, indentation fracture toughness) of the TBC systems before and after FCT were analyzed. The thermal fatigue resistance increases with the amount of porosity in the top coat. The compressive in-plane stresses increase in the TBC systems after thermal cycling; nevertheless the increasing rate has a trend contrary to the porosity level of top coat. The data suggest that the spallation happens at the TGO/top coat interface. The failure mechanism of thick TBCs was found to be similar to that of conventional thin TBC systems made by APS.