Ashish Ganvir

Characterization of Microstructure and Thermal Properties of YSZ Coatings Obtained by Axial Suspension Plasma Spraying (ASPS)

The paper aims at demonstrating various microstructures which can be obtained using the suspension spraying technique and their respective significance in enhancing the thermal insulation property of a thermal barrier coating. Three different types of coating microstructures are discussed which were produced by the Axial Suspension Plasma Spraying. Detailed characterization of coatings was then performed. Optical and scanning electron microscopy were utilized for microstructure evaluations; x-ray diffraction for phase analysis; water impregnation, image analysis, and mercury intrusion porosimetry for porosity analysis, and laser flash analysis for thermal diffusivity measurements were used. The results showed that Axial Suspension Plasma Spraying can generate vertically cracked, porous, and feathery columnar-type microstructures. Pore size distribution was found in micron, submicron, and nanometer range. Higher overall porosity, the lower density of vertical cracks or inter-column spacing, and higher inter-pass porosity favored thermal insulation property of the coating. Significant increase in thermal diffusivity and conductivity was found at higher temperature, which is believed to be due to the pore rearrangement (sintering and pore coarsening). Thermal conductivity values for these coatings were also compared with electron beam physical vapor deposition (EBPVD) thermal barrier coatings from the literature and found to be much lower.

Influence of Microstructure on Thermal Properties of Axial Suspension Plasma-Sprayed YSZ Thermal Barrier Coatings

Suspension plasma spraying is a relatively new thermal spaying technique to produce advanced thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and enables production of coatings with a variety of structures—highly dense, highly porous, segmented, or columnar. This work investigates suspension plasma-sprayed TBCs produced using axial injection with different process parameters. The influence of coating microstructure on thermal properties was of specific interest. Tests carried out included microstructural analysis, phase analysis, determination of porosity, and pore size distribution, as well as thermal diffusivity/conductivity measurements. Results showed that axial suspension plasma spraying process makes it possible to produce various columnar-type coatings under different processing conditions. Significant influence of microstructural features on thermal properties of the coatings was noted. In particular, the process parameter-dependent microstructural attributes, such as porosity, column density, and crystallite size, were shown to govern the thermal diffusivity and thermal conductivity of the coating.

Thermal Conductivity in Suspension Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings : Modeling and Experiments

Axial suspension plasma spraying (ASPS) can generate microstructures with higher porosity and pores in the size range from submicron to nanometer. ASPS thermal barrier coatings (TBC) have already shown a great potential to produce low thermal conductivity coatings for gas turbine applications. It is important to understand the fundamental relationships between microstructural defects in ASPS coatings such as crystallite boundaries, porosity etc. and thermal conductivity. Object-oriented finite element (OOF) analysis has been shown as an effective tool for evaluating thermal conductivity of conventional TBCs as this method is capable of incorporating the inherent microstructure in the model. The objective of this work was to analyze the thermal conductivity of ASPS TBCs using experimental techniques and also to evaluate a procedure where OOF can be used to predict and analyze the thermal conductivity for these coatings. Verification of the model was done by comparing modeling results with the experimental thermal conductivity. The results showed that the varied scaled porosity has a significant influence on the thermal conductivity. Smaller crystallites and higher overall porosity content resulted in lower thermal conductivity. It was shown that OOF could be a powerful tool to predict and rank thermal conductivity of ASPS TBCs.

Influence of Microstructure on Thermal Properties of Columnar Axial Suspension Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

Suspension Plasma Spraying is a relatively new thermal spraying technique to produce advanced thermal barrier coatings. This technique enables the production of a variety of structures from highly ...

EBSD Analysis and Assessment of Porosity in Thermal Barrier Coatings Produced by Axial Suspension Plasma Spraying (ASPS)

Axial suspension plasma spraying (ASPS) is a relatively new, innovative spraying technique which has produced thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) with attractive properties such as high durability and low thermal conductivity. Using a suspension, it is possible to spray with finer powder particles resulting in coatings that have a columnar microstructure and contain a wide range of pore sizes, both nm-and μm-sized pores. To optimize the thermal properties and to maintain them during service of the components, it will be important to design TBCs with optimal porosity. Hence, an important part in the assessment of ASPS coatings is therefore the characterization of the microstructure and how it is build up, and the determination of porosity. Both aspects are addressed by performing measurement on splats and ASPS-coating using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique and by measuring porosity by Mercury Intrusion Porosimetry (MIP).

The Influence of Heat Treatments on the Porosity of Suspension Plasma-Sprayed Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia Coatings

Suspension plasma-sprayed coatings are produced using fine-grained feedstock. This allows to control the porosity and to achieve low thermal conductivity which makes the coatings attractive as topcoats in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). Used in gas turbine applications, TBCs are exposed to high temperature exhaust gases which lead to microstructure alterations. In order to obtain coatings with optimized thermomechanical properties, microstructure alterations like closing of pores and opening of cracks have to be taken into account. Hence, in this study, TBC topcoats consisting of 4xa0mol.% yttria-stabilized zirconia were heat-treated in air at 1150xa0°C and thereafter the coating porosity was investigated using image analysis (IA) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) cryoporometry. Both IA and NMR cryoporometry showed that the porosity changed as a result of the heat treatment for all investigated coatings. In fact, both techniques showed that the fine porosity decreased as a result of the heat treatment, while IA also showed an increase in the coarse porosity. When studying the coatings using scanning electron microscopy, it was noticed that finer pores and cracks disappeared and larger pores grew slightly and achieved a more distinct shape as the material seemed to become more compact.

Axial Suspension Plasma Spraying: An ultimate technique to tailor Ti6Al4V surface with HAp for orthopaedic applications

Dissolution of atmospheric plasma sprayed (APS) hydroxyapatite (HAp) coatings on Ti-6Al-4u2009V medical implants have always been a challenge to overcome in the field of biomedical industry. In the present work, an attempt has been made to develop a HAp coating using a novel thermal spray process called axial suspension plasma spraying (SPS), which leads to thin adherent coatings. Two HAp coatings fabricated by APS (P1 and P2) and four SPS HAp coatings (S1, S2, S3 and S4) produced with varying spraying parameters were characterized in terms of (1) microstructure, porosity, hardness, adhesion strength, contact angle and phase purity; (2) corrosion resistance in 10% Fetal bovine serum (FBS); (3) in-vitro cell adherence and cell viability using human umbilical cord blood-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hMSCs). Amongst different APS and SPS coatings, P1 and S3 exhibited superior properties. S3 coating developed using SPS exhibited 1.3 times higher adhesion strength when compared to APS coating (P1) and 9.5 times higher corrosion resistance than P1. In addition, both S3 and P1 exhibited comparatively higher biocompatibility as evidenced by the presence of more than 92% viable hMSCs.