Thermally Grown Oxide Stress in PS-PVD and EB-PVD Thermal Barrier Coatings Observed at Various Lifetimes via Synchrotron X-ray Diffraction

The current standard application method for thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) on turbine blades for jet engines is electron-beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) due to its high strain tolerance and low thermal conductivity. An emerging deposition method, plasma-spray physical vapor deposition (PS- PVD), presents an opportunity for a tailorable microstructure, and non-line- of-sight deposition that is faster and less expensive. To compare the lifetime behavior of both PS-PVD and EB-PVD coatings, samples subjected to 300 and 600 thermal cycles were measured during a 1-hour thermal cycle to de- termine the strains, which were converted to stress, in the thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer of the TBCs using synchrotron X-ray diffraction (XRD). Room temperature XRD measurements indicated among samples that PS- PVD coatings experienced greater variation in in-plane room temperature strain in the TGO after cycling than the EB-PVD coatings. In-situ XRD measurements indicated similar high-temperature strain and no spallation after 600 thermal cycles for both coatings. Microscopy imaging after cycling showed greater rumpling in PS-PVD coatings that led to different failure modes between the two coatings’ TGO layer. The tailorability of PS-PVD coatings allows for adjustments in the processing parameters to improve their overall performance after aging and bridge the differences between the two deposition methods.