Surface geometry and strain energy effects in the failure of a (Ni, Pt)Al/EB-PVD thermal barrier coating

Thermal cycling tests were conducted on a commercial yttria-stabilized zirconia electron beam-physical vapor deposited thermal barrier coating (TBC) on a platinum aluminide (β-(Ni, Pt)Al) bond coat. Surprisingly, the longest life sample lasted 10 times longer than the shortest life sample. Two distinct mechanisms have been found responsible for the observed damage initiation and progression at the thermally grown oxide (TGO)/bond coat interface. The first mechanism leads to localized debonding at the TGO/bond coat interface due to increasing out-of-plane tensile stresses at ridges that form along bond coat grain boundaries. The second mechanism is driven by cyclic plasticity of the bond coat that leads to cavity formation at the TGO/bond coat interface. The primary finding of this work is that the first mechanism, involving tensile stress at ridge tops, is life limiting. Based on this mechanism, it is demonstrated that the variation in bond coat ridge aspect ratio can explain the unusual 10x variation in observed sample life. It is proposed that ridge top spallation leads to debonds of sufficient size to result in unstable fracture driven by the strain energy stored in the TGO. The criticality of the flaw created by local debonding is supported by experimental determination of the strain energy available in the TGO through measurement of TGO stress and thickness combined with published fracture mechanics solutions of the relevant flaw geometry