Strain tolerance and microstructure of thermal barrier coatings produced by electron beam physical vapor deposition process

Several kinds of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) deposited by electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) were produced as a function of electron beam power in order to evaluate their strain tolerance. The deposition temperatures were changed from 1210 K to 1303 K depending on EB power. In order to evaluate strain tolerances of the EB-PVD/TBCs, a uniaxial compressive spallation test was newly proposed in this study. In addition, the microstructures of the layers were observed with SEM and Young's moduli were measured by a nanoindentation test. The strain tolerance in as-deposited samples decreased with an increase in deposition temperature. In the sample deposited at 1210 and 1268 K, high-temperature aging treatment at 1273 K for 10 h remarkably promoted the reduction of the strain tolerance. The growth of thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer generated at the interface between topcoat and bondcoat layers was the principal reason for this strain tolerance reduction. We observed TGO-layer growth even in the as-deposited sample. Although the thickness of the initial TGO layer in the sample deposited at high temperature was thicker, the growth rate during aging treatment was smaller than those of the other specimens. This result suggests that we can improve the oxidation resistance of TBC systems by controlling the processing parameters in the EB-PVD process.