Interfacial degradation of thermal barrier coatings in isothermal and cyclic oxidation test

Abstract

The degradation mechanisms of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) were investigated in different thermal fatigue condition in terms of microstructural analyses. The isothermal and cyclic oxidation tests were conducted to atmospheric plasma sprayed-TBCs on NIMONIC 263 substrates. The delamination occurred by the oxide layer formation at the interface, the Ni/Cr-based oxide was formed after Al-based oxide layer grew up to <TEX>${\sim}10{\mu}m$</TEX> in the isothermal condition. In the cyclic oxidation with dwell time, the failure occurred earlier (500 hr) than in the isothermal oxidation (900 hr) at same temperature. The thickness of Al-based oxide layer of the delaminated specimen in the cyclic condition was <TEX>${\sim}4{\mu}m$</TEX> and the interfacial cracks were observed. The acoustic emission method revealed that the cracks generated during the cooling step. It was considered that the specimens were prevented from the formation of the Al-based oxide by cooling treatment, and the degradation mode in the cyclic test was dominantly interfacial cracking by the difference of thermal expansion coefficients of the coating layers.