Microstructures and properties of laser-glazed plasma-sprayed ZrO2-YO1.5/Ni-22Cr-10Al-1Y thermal barrier coatings

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) consisting of two layers with various yttria contents (ZrO2-YO1.5/Ni-22Cr-10Al-1Y) were plasma sprayed, and parts of the various specimens were glazed by using a pulsed CO2 laser. All the specimens were then subjected to furnace thermal cycling tests at 1,100 C; the effect of laser glazing on the durability and failure mechanism of the TBCs was then evaluated. From these results, two models were developed to show the failure mechanism of as-sprayed and laser-glazed TBCs: model A, which is thermal-stress dominant, and model V, which is oxidation-stress dominant. For top coats containing cubic phase, cubic and monoclinic phases, or tetragonal and a relatively larger amount of monoclinic phases, whose degradation is thermal-stress dominant, laser glazing improved the durability of TBCs by a factor of about 2 to 6. Segmented cracks that occurred during glazing proved beneficial for accommodating thermal stress and raising the tolerance to oxidation, which resulted in a higher durability. Thermal barrier coatings with top coats containing tetragonal phase had the highest durability. Degradation of such TBCs resulted mainly from oxidation of the bond coats. For top coats with a greater amount of monoclinic phase, thermal mismatch stress occurred during cooling and detrimentally affected durability