Interfacial delamination of porous thermal barrier coatings based on SEM image processing in finite element model

Abstract

Numerical analysis of interfacial delamination and the effect of microstructural pores and rough interfaces on the field variables in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) based on a real scanning electron microscope (SEM) image is performed. The interfacial delamination is modelled by the utilization of cohesive zone method (CZM) in finite element (FE) analysis. The empirical TBC sample considered in this study is constructed via air plasma spray (APS) method and comprises ZrO27-8wt.%Y2O3 ceramic top coat (TC), thermally grown oxide (TGO) made of Al2O3 and NiCrAlY metallic bond coat (BC). A compatible geometry is provided by applying image processing technique to SEM image of the sample's cross-section. SEM image-based geometry imported into FE software to scrutinize the interplay effects of porosity and rough interfaces on temperature fields, thermal stresses and interfacial debonding of TC/TGO and TGO/BC interfaces of the TBC structure. FE analysis reveal that porosity distribution has a prominent role on the stress concentration zones at the sharp corners of pores especially adjacent to undulations of the TC/TGO interface, which is responsible for possible internal cracks and interfacial fracture, respectively. The main findings demonstrate that the porosity near the TC/TGO interface has detrimental effect as leads to aggravation in the TC/TGO interface damage, which causes an increment in TC/TGO interfacial crack length. While, the porosity within the BC has the ability to reduce the stress and damage level along the TGO/BC interface. In addition, considering creep for all layers leads to lower stress levels up to 24.82 % and consequently alleviates the TC/TGO interface damage.