Development and Performance Evaluation of Thick Air Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

Abstract Air plasma sprayed thermal barrier coatings have been widely used to reduce metal wall temperatures of industrial gas turbine combustor liners. Thermal barrier coatings provide thermal gradients, with the goal of reducing the liner wall temperature to acceptable levels as a result of their low thermal conductivity. A typical thermal barrier coating consists of a 0.1-0.2 mm MCrAlY bond coating and a 0.25-0.35 mm thick 8 wt.% yttria stabilized zirconia ceramic top coating. A method to increase thermal barrier coating effectiveness is the application of thicker ceramic coatings. Development and performance testing of 0.5-0.8 mm thick ceramic coatings are discussed in this paper. Cyclic oxidation tests that simulate industrial gas turbine environments were conducted. Thermal barrier coating degradation-mechanisms were determined from microstructural evaluation of thermally exposed samples.