Normal spectral emittance of Inconel 718 aeronautical alloy coated with yttria stabilized zirconia films

Abstract Knowledge of the radiative behaviour of the yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) is needed to perform radiative heat transfer calculations in industrial applications. In this paper, normal spectral emittance experimental data of atmospheric plasma sprayed (PS) YSZ films layered on Inconel 718 substrates are shown. The spectral emittance was measured between 2.5 and 22 μm on samples with film thicknesses ranging from 20 to 280 μm. The samples were heated in a controlled environment, and the emittance was measured for several temperatures between 330 and 730 °C. The dependence of the spectral emittance with film thickness, surface roughness and temperature has been studied and compared with the available results for YSZ TBCs obtained by electron-beam physical vapour deposition. The PS-TBC samples show a Christiansen point at λ = 12.8 μm. The films are semi-transparent for λ   9 μm. In the semi-transparent region, the contribution of the radiation emitted by the Inconel 718 substrate to the global emittance of the samples is analysed. In addition, the influence of the roughness in the emittance values in the opaque spectral region is discussed. Finally, the total normal emittance is obtained as a function of the TBC thickness.