Long crack behavior in a thermal barrier coating upon thermal shock loading

The behavior of macroscopic long cracks in the ceramic top coat of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) system subjected to thermal shock loading and the influence of the cracks on the coating durability were investigated experimentally and numerically. Thermal shock testing was conducted until coating failure. Comparisons were made with coating samples without macroscopic cracks. The experimental results revealed that the presence of macroscopic cracks reduces the life of the TBC. The finite-element method, with a fracture mechanics approach, was applied to analyze preexisting long cracks, and the calculations correlate well with the experimental findings. It was found that the life of the coating is reduced with crack length as well as with maximum cycle temperature. It was also found that the stress-intensity factors for long cracks are initially high and decrease with the number of temperature cycles, which indicates that rapid crack growth occurs during the first number of cycles.