High temperature titanium alloys are considered as good candidate materials for many aerospace applications. In order to increase the usable temperatures and oxidation resistance of titanium alloys, plasma spraying thermal barrier coatings on the titanium alloys is considered as an effective method. The effect of plasma spraying process on microstructure and microhardness of the titanium alloy was investigated by scanning electron microscope, energy dispersion analytical X-ray spectroscopy and microhardness test. The results show that the microstructure of the titanium alloy inside the substrate keeps unchanged after plasma spraying, and no interaction and atomic diffusion happen evidently at the bond coat/substrate interface. However there exists a thin layer of plastic deformation zone in the substrate beneath the bond coat/substrate interface after plasma spraying. The residual stresses are induced inside the titanium alloy due to the thermal expansion mismatch and the temperature gradient inside the substrate during plasma spraying, and lead to generating microcracks in the surface beneath the bond coat/substrate interface and the increase of microhardness in the substrate.

Two kinds of thermal barrier coatings with NiCoCrAlY bond coatings (BCs) deposited by electron beam-physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) and high velocity oxy-fuel thermal spraying (HVOF), respectively, as well as their top 8wt.%Y 2 O 3 -ZrO 2 (YSZ) ceramic layers deposited in one batch by EB-PVD were prepared on near-α titanium alloys. The field emission scanning electronic microscopy and microhardness indentation are used in comparatively study of microstructures, microhardness of samples. Cracking modes and crack characteristics in TBCs are investigated after thermal cycling in atmosphere, along with the discussion of roles of residual stresses, bonding strengths and mechanical properties of bond coatings in different failure extents. It is found that morphologies of BCs deposited by different methods (EB-PVD and HVOF) result in the different microstructures and microhardness of their upper YSZ. The denser and more homogeneous BC prepared by EB-PVD leads to the YSZ with finer and denser columnar clusters and higher microhardness, and the inhomogeneous and porous latter results in the upper YSZ with coarser and loosely bonded columnar grains and lower microhardness, and the TBC with BC deposited by EB-PVD is more protective, which is synthetically induced by residual stresses, bonding strengths and mechanical properties of bond coatings.