Abstract
Thermal barrier coatings are mainly used to protect underlying alloys from heat and chemical aggressions, especially in jet turbines and diesel engines. The challenge in TBCs’ applications is to use them to protect the upper moving turbine’s blades where their surface temperature can reach 1200°C. The limiting effect is the reliability of these coatings. The work described in this paper is a continuation of our earlier research work, which is focused on the use of Acoustic Emission Technique to assess the long-term behavior of thermal barrier coatings under thermal cycling conditions. Emphasis is placed in this presentation on the comparison of different signal processing techniques and the evaluation of their potential usefulness for the prediction of the coating behavior and failure modes. The work is carried out in parallel with a finite element modeling study of the thermal and stress distribution in the coating, which provides a valuable insight in the coating stress distribution prior to failure.
