As the initial step of a process control design for a substrate surface temperature control solution for Vacuum Plasma Spraying (VPS), the distribution of heat transfer coefficient h between impinging plasma gases and the substrate coating surface is required. An embedded calorimeter approach was used to measure the distribution of the convective heat transfer coefficient over the surface of a substrate and the resulting distributions have been compared with empirical correlations and CFD model predictions of the plasma jet/substrate interaction, as a function of VPS process parameters.