Morphological Evaluation of Plasma Sprayed Ceramic Coatings using Cavitation Erosion Test

Abstract

The microstructure of plasma sprayed ceramic coatings is characterized by the existence of splats along with other morphological features such as interlamellar and globular pores, intrasplat microcracks and splat boundaries. These various process-dependant microdefects extremely influence physical and mechanical properties such as thermal conductivity and elastic modulus and then influence coating behavior. In this approach, the process involved in the cavitation erosion of plasma sprayed ceramic coatings have been studied using the ultrasonic vibratory technique. The weight loss occurring during fifteen minute intervals of exposure to cavitational erosion was determined, the surface of specimens and the wear debris were examined by Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) . The results suggest that the improvement in coating performance could be achieved by controlling the effective contact between lamellae of which the coating is made up using the plasma spray conditions, such as sufficient preheat, short standoff distance and slow gun traversing movement.