Experimental and Modeling Studies of Bond Coat Species Effect on Microstructure Evolution in EB-PVD Thermal Barrier Coatings in Cyclic Thermal Environments

Abstract

In this work, the effects of bond coat species on the thermal barrier coating (TBC) microstructure are investigated under thermal cyclic conditions. The TBC samples are prepared by electron beam-physical vapor deposition with two species of bond coats prepared by either air-plasma spray (APS) or high-velocity oxygen fuel (HVOF) methods. The TBC samples are evaluated in a variety of thermal cyclic conditions, including flame thermal fatigue (FTF), cyclic furnace thermal fatigue (CFTF), and thermal shock (TS) tests. In FTF test, the interface microstructures of TBC samples show a sound condition without any delamination or cracking. In CFTF and TS tests, the TBCs with the HVOF bond coat demonstrate better thermal durability than that by APS. In parallel with the experiments, a finite element (FE) model is developed. Using a transient thermal analysis, the high-temperature creep-fatigue behavior of the TBC samples is simulated similar to the conditions used in CFTF test. The FE simulation predicts a lower equivalent stress at the interface between the top coat and bond coat in bond coat prepared using HVOF compared with APS, suggesting a longer cyclic life of the coating with the HVOF bond coat, which is consistent with the experimental observation.