Residual Stress Analysis of Ceramic Thermal Barrier Coating Based on Thermal Spray Process

Abstract

Residual stress is generated in ceramic thermal barrier coatings (TBCs), which were sprayed by a plasma spray technology, due to the difference in coefficients of thermal expansion between the coating and the substrate. Previous experimental results obtained by the X-ray diffraction method indicated that the residual stress at the ceramic coating surface is tensile and could lead to TBC failure such as cracking and spalling of the ceramic coating. In this study, a numerical model that can predict the residual stress exactly is proposed by taking into account a thermal spray process. This numerical model is a layer-buildup model based on a shear-lag theory, and the residual stress contribution comes from two kinds of the following stress components: (1) quenching stress, which was generated in molten spray particles impinged onto the substrate, and (2) thermal stress, which was generated due to differences in thermal expansion between the deposited particle and the underlying substrate. It is shown herein that residual stress predicted by the proposed numerical model coincided with the experimental one obtained by the strain gage technique, with a good level of accuracy.