Citation:
R.G. Wellman, J.R. Nicholls, K. Murphy, Effect of microstructure and temperature on the erosion rates and mechanisms of modified EB PVD TBCs, Wear, Volume 267, Issue 11, ICAP 2008, 29 October 2009, Pages 1927-1934
Abstract:
Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have now been used in gas turbine engines for a
number of decades and are now considered to be an accepted technology. As there
is a constant drive to increase the turbine entry temperature, in order to
increase engine efficiency, the coatings operate in increasingly hostile
environments. Thus there is a constant drive to both increase the temperature
capabilities of TBCs while at the same time reducing their thermal
conductivities. The thermal conductivity of standard 7 wt% yttria stabilized
zirconia (7YSZ) electron beam (EB) physical vapour deposited (PVD) TBCs can be
reduced in two ways: the first by modification of the microstructure of the TBC
and the second by addition of ternary oxides. By modifying the microstructure of
the TBC such that there are more fine pores, more photon scattering centres are
introduced into the coatings, which reduce the heat transfer by radiation. While
ternary oxides will introduce lattice defects into the coating, which increases
the phonon scattering, thus reducing the thermal conductivity via lattice
vibrations. Unfortunately, both of these methods can have a negative effect on
the erosion resistance of EB PVD TBCs. This paper compares the relative erosion
rates of ten different EB PVD TBCs tested at 90à ° impact at room temperature and
at high temperature and discusses the results in term of microstructural and
temperature effects. It was found that by modifying the coating deposition, such
that a low density coating with a highly â  featheredâ  microstructure formed,
generally resulted in an increase in the erosion rate at room temperature. When
there was a significant change between the room temperature and the high
temperature erosion mechanism it was accompanied by a significant decrease in
the erosion rate, while additions of dopents was found to significantly increase
the erosion rate at room and high temperature. However, all the modified
coatings still had a lower erosion rate than a plasma sprayed coatings. So,
although, relative to a standard 7YSZ coating, the modified coatings have a
lower erosion resistance, they still perform better than PS TBCs and their lower
thermal conductivities could make them viable alternatives to 7YSZ for use in
gas turbine eng