Bond Coat Engineering Influence on the Evolution of the Microstructure, Bond Strength and Failure of TBCs Subjected to Thermal Cycling

Different thermal spray technologies were used to apply CoNiCrAlY bond coats to Inconel substrates. Powder compositions were the same in all cases and particle size recommendations were followed for each torch. YSZ topcoats were deposited via APS on bond coat samples selected based on roughness, porosity, residual stress, oxidation, and isothermal TGO growth. The TBCs were furnace cycle tested for 10-1400 cycles as well as to failure and changes in bond strength and TGO thickness were recorded. It was observed that bond strength values, which are relatively stable during thermal cycling, decrease significantly just before failure brought on by topcoat spall off.