Several fundamental researches on structural integrity of plasma-sprayed coating-based systems

Abstract

Plasma spraying is one of the most versatile and sophisticated thermal spraying methods to deposit powders as dense coatings with low porosity owing to its high plasma temperatures. However, the existence of the microdefects and residual stress generated during the plasma-spraying process could limit the use of the coatings to low-stress applications. Hence, how to establish the process–microstructure–property maps and relations of plasma-sprayed coatings became a concern. The aim of this paper was to summarize some foundational researches on the structure integrity and life prediction of plasma-sprayed coating-based systems. Three different topics were involved, i.e., the microstructural integrity of coatings relating to the processing parameters, the thermomechanical integrity of the coating-based systems with residual stresses, and the durability of coatings under the applied loading conditions. These studies would provide some important insights for improving the operation stability and providing the fail-safe design methodologies for coating-based systems.