Erosion behavior and failure mechanism of Ti/TiAlN multilayer coatings eroded by silica sand and glass beads

Abstract

Severe erosion by hard particles is a crucial problem to engine blades when aircraft take off and land in harsh environments, especially for the developed lightweight titanium alloy components. Here, we deposited the Ti/TiAlN multilayer coatings with various cycles on Ti–6Al–4V substrates by a home-made hybrid multisource cathodic arc system. The effects of the silica sand and glass beads on erosion behavior of the coatings were focused. Results showed that the Ti/TiAlN multilayer coatings eroded by the silica sand exhibited the predominant “layer by layer” failure mechanism. In particular, increasing the number of cycles led to the dramatic increase in erosion rate for Ti/TiAlN multilayer coatings, due to the deterioration of their mechanical properties. Different from the silica sand case, however, the erosion rate of the coatings treated by glass beads indicated faint dependence upon the number of cycles, where the coating failure was dominated by the “piece by piece” failure mechanism. Noted that the Ti layers along with the formed interfaces enhanced the erosion resistance of the coatings, although the failure mechanisms were differently eroded by silica sand and glass beads. Meanwhile, the Ti layers and interfaces hindered the propagation of radial cracks and restrained the lateral cracks within one single TiAlN layer.