Thermal fatigue of thermal barrier coatings by atmospheric plasma spraying

Turbine vanes and blades are the most intensively loaded elements in that they are subjected to a large variety of mechanical and high temperature loads. The thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are widely used on different hot components of gas turbines, as blades and vanes, for both, power engineering as well as aeronautical applications. Currently, two methods are used for depositing TBCs on substrate, which are plasma spray (PS) and electron beam-physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD). A typical TBCs system consists of two thin coatings, including a ceramic coating and a metallic bond coat. Despite considerable efforts, the highly desirable prediction of their life time is still a demanding task. The PS coating was focused on in this work. Firstly, the TBCs systems are multiplayer material systems. The material properties are not easily determined, such as Young's modulus of the top-coating of TBCs. Using the resonant frequency and the composite beam theory, the Young's modulus of APS TBCs was gotten under from room temperature to 1150°C. Then using a commercial finite-element program, the model geometry is that of a cylinder specimen. The interface region between bond coat and top coating is modeled and meshed with a sinusoidal geometry. The temperature was designed and cycled over a range from room temperature to 1050°C. The force-air-cooling was designed to form temperature gradient across the thickness of TBCs. Finally, the fatigue life of TBCs was predicated. The maximum relative error is 20.1%.