Cracking behaviors of EB-PVD thermal barrier coating under temperature gradient

In this paper, we study the cracking behaviors of single-crystal nickel-based superalloy samples coated with electron-beam physical vapor deposited (EB-PVD) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) under a thermal gradient experimentally and via the finite element method (FEM). Our results indicate that the stress distribution and failure mode of the TBC samples under the thermal gradient are different from those of samples under a uniform temperature field. The failure of the TBCs under uniform temperature is initiated by interfacial and horizontal cracks, which can result in the separation and buckling of the top coat (TC) layer. However, for the TBCs under a thermal gradient, failure is mainly caused by both vertical TC cracks and interfacial cracks because of the increased transversal stress in the TC layer. Moreover, the initiation and propagation of vertical and horizontal cracks change the failure mode to local spallation of the TC layer. We believe that our findings can contribute to further developments in TBC technology.