Adhesion strength studies on zirconia based pyrochlore and functionally gradient thermal barrier coatings

Abstract

Abstract Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) plays a major role in the improvement of gas turbine and engine components in terms of their service life and performance. Generally, all coatings must possess certain primary properties to perform in the intended applications. However, regardless of applications, suitable adhesion strength is one major characteristic they must have to adequately protect the basic components on which they are applied upon. In TBCs, adhesion (or Bond) strength is a parameter that helps to illustrate the resistance of the ceramic top coat against spallation either from the bond coat (and component) or within the TBC layers itself. The performance of TBCs are reliant upon the adhesion between the coating and the metal substrate and also adhesion (or cohesion) between the bond coat and the overlying ceramic top coat layer. The de-bonding of the top coat layer or the inter-metallic bond coat layers are the main reasons of the failure of the overall TBC system. Some of the prominent problems associated with coatings applications are residual stresses, micro-cracks and pores etc. These and many other factors influence the adhesion of the coatings in addition to service environment conditions and pre coating substrate preparations such as substrate cleaning, grit blasting and very importantly plasma spray parameters. In the present work, results obtained from adhesion strength measurements carried out by following the ASTM C 633 standard test method, on various types of TBCs are being shared. Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) were synthesized with NiCrAlY bond coat deposited on SS 304L substrate by using air plasma spray and different ceramic top coats (a) commercial 8%Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (8YSZ) (b) lab synthesized plasma spray powders of (i) Lanthanum Zirconate (La2Zr2O7) (ii) Lanthanum Ceria Zirconate (La2 (Zr0.7Ce0.3)2O7) and (iii) Lanthanum cerate (La2Ce2O7). The coating depositions were carried out in different configurations i.e. two layers, three layers and gradient layers (Functionally gradient materials). The evaluation of properties includes the studies of morphology of the strength (adhesive/cohesive failure mode) tested specimen as well. General conclusions drawn from the studies on several specimen in various configurations are that cohesive failures (between the ceramic top coat layers) is the predominant mechanisms followed by few adhesive failures in bond coat coat/ceramic interface.