Cracking in coating–substrate composites with multi-layered and FGM coatings

Abstract

This investigation evaluates, by finite element method, the stress intensity factors (SIF) of cracked multi-layered and functionally graded material (FGM) coatings of a coating–substrate composite, due to the action of uniform normal stress on the crack surfaces. The substrate is assumed to be homogeneous material, while the coating consists of multi-layered media or sigmoid FGMs. The sigmoid FGM is a kind of FGM in which the material properties of the coating are governed by two power-law functions of volume fractions such that the functions of the material property represent sigmoid distributions in the thickness direction, simply called S-FGM in this paper. For the multi-layered coatings, one, two, and four-layered homogeneous coatings with stepwise changing volume fractions are considered. The primary problem addressed herein is the appearance of a crack in the coating surface and its expansion into the substrate along the direction perpendicular to the interface between the coating and the substrate. The results show that if the coating is stiffer than the substrate, a crack in a one-layered coating is much more susceptible to propagation into the substrate than a crack in the two- or four-layered coating. But crack growth can be effectively averted by using an S-FGM coating. However, if the coating is softer than the substrate, the S-FGM coating behaves like a bridge to connect the soft coating and the stiff substrate, and facilitates the expansion of the crack expanding into the substrate. Whereas the one-layered coating can more effectively prevent the crack from propagating into the substrate than can the two- or four-layered coating. The investigation also indicates that the material gradations of S-FGMs influence SIFs obviously only when the crack tip is inside the coating that is stiffer than the substrate. As the crack extends through the coating and into the substrate, the material gradation of the S-FGM coating and the material mismatch of the multi-layered coating slightly bear on the values of SIF.