Influences of Temperature Field on Microstructural Characteristics of Laser Cladding Al2O3-13wt.%TiO2 Coating Prepared by Plasma Spraying

Abstract

To explore effects of temperature field in laser cladding on structure of ceramic coating prepared by plasma spraying, a finite element model of continuous moving three-dimensional temperature field of laser cladded Al2O3-13wt.%TiO2 coating prepared by plasma spraying was constructed by the parametric design language of ANSYS finite element software to analyze temperature field during laser cladding. According to analysis results, it is very difficult to realize complete remelting of the whole preset ceramic coating during laser cladding when it is thick, which is related with the relatively low thermal conductivity of the ceramic materials. The whole coating can be divided into remelting zone, sintering zone and residual plasma spraying zone according to temperature field distribution in the zone of cladding. Given the optimal technological parameters, relatively thick remelting zone and sintering zone could be gained under the relatively low laser cladding power and relatively low scanning speed. Experimental results demonstrated that the ceramic coating after cladding formed remelting zone with small-sized and dense isometric crystals, sintering zone and lamellar residual plasma spraying zone. Moreover, the calculated results of thickness of the remelting zone and sintering zone conformed well to experimental values. This proved that the constructed finite element model is accurate and reliable.