Skip to main content
Log in

Ultrasonic Detection of Delamination and Material Characterization of Thermal Barrier Coatings

Journal of Thermal Spray Technology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This article describes ultrasonic nondestructive evaluation (NDE) to detect the changes of material properties and provide early warning of delamination in thermal barrier coating (TBC) systems. NDE tests were performed on single-crystal René N5 superalloy coupons that were coated with a commercially available MCrAlY bond coat and an air plasma sprayed 7% yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) top coat deposited by Air Plasma Spray method, as well as Haynes 230 superalloy coupons coated with MCrA1Y bond coat, and an electron beam physical vapor deposit of 7% YSZ top coat. The TBC coupons were subjected to either cyclic or isothermal exposure for various lengths of time at temperatures ranging from 900 to 1100 °C. The ultrasonic measurements performed on the coupons had provided an early warning of delamination along the top coat/TGO interface before exposure time, when delamination occurred. The material's property (Young’s modulus) of the top coat was estimated using the measured wave speeds. Finite element analysis (FEA) of the ultrasonic wave propagation was conducted on a simplified TBC system to verify experimental observations. The technique developed was also demonstrated on an as-manufactured turbine blade to estimate normalized top coat thickness measurements.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Picture 1
Picture 2
Picture 3
Picture 4
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12
Fig. 13
Fig. 14
Fig. 15

Similar content being viewed by others

Abbreviations

λ:

Lame’s constants

μ:

Lame’s constants

ρ:

Mass density

ν:

Poisson’s ratio

C L :

Longitudinal wave speed

E :

Young’s modulus

P :

Porosity

References

  1. M.A. Alvin, Materials and Component Development for Advanced Turbine Systems, 22nd Annual Conference on Fossil Energy Materials, 2008, Pittsburgh, PA

  2. M.A. Alvin, D. Alman, B. Covino, J. Tylczak, F. Pettit, G. Meier, N. Yanar, M. Chyu, D. Mazzotta, W. Slaughter, V. Karaivanov, S. Seetharaman, B. Kang, C. Feng, H. Chen, and T. Fu, Materials and Component Development for Advanced Turbine Systems, EPRI 5th International Conference on Advances in Materials Technology for Fossil Power Plants, 2007, The Electric Power Research Institute, FL

  3. M.F. Koolloos, G.G. Liempd, and J.M. Houben, Effect of Local Thermal Shock Load on Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings, Surf. Eng., 1998, 14(2), p 144-148

    CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. J. Shi, A.M. Karlsson, B. Baufeld, and M. Bartsh, Evolution of Surface Morphology of Thermo-Mechanically Cycled NiCoCrAIY Bondcoats, Mater. Sci. Eng., 2006, 434, p 39-52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. A. Portinha, V. Teixeire, J. Carneiro, M.G. Behi, C.E. Bottani, N. Franco, R. Vassen, D. Stoever, and A.D. Sequira, Residual Stresses and Elastic Modulus of Thermal Barrier Coatings Graded in Porosity, Surf. Coat. Technol., 2004, 188-189, p 120-128

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. L. Swadźba, G. Moskal, B. Mendala, and T. Gancarczyk, Characterization of Air Plasma Sprayed TBC Coating During Isothermal Oxidation at 1100°C, J. Achiev. Mater. Manuf. Eng., 2007, 21, p 81-84

    Google Scholar 

  7. V. Teixeira, M. Andritschky, H. Gruhn, W. Malléner, H.P. Buchkremer, and D. Stöver, Failure of Physical Vapor Deposition/Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings During Thermal Cycling, J. Therm. Spray Technol., 2000, 9(2), p 191-197

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. D. Zhu and R.A. Miller, Thermal Conductivity and Elastic Modulus Evolution of Thermal Barrier Coatings under High Heat Flux Conditions, J. Therm. Spray Technol., 2000, 9(2), p 175-180

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. E. Fuller, M. Locatelli, and R. Kacker, Interface-Related Damage Evolution in Air-Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings, Symposium on Durability and Damage Tolerance of Heterogeneous Material Systems, 2003 ASME Int’l Mechanical Engineering Congress, 2003, Washington, DC

  10. E. Ellingson, R. Visher, R. Lipanovich, and C. Deemer, Optical NDT Techniques for Ceramic Thermal Barrier Coatings, Mater. Eval., 2006, 64(1), p 45-51

    Google Scholar 

  11. H.P. Crutzen, F. Lakestani, and J.R. Nicholls, Ultrasonic Characterisation of Thermal Barrier Coatings, IEEE Ultrason. Symp., 1996, 1, p 731-734

    Google Scholar 

  12. B. Rogé, A. Fahr, J.S.R. Giguère, and K.I. McRae, Nondestructive Measurement of Porosity in Thermal Barrier Coatings, J. Therm. Spray Technol., 2003, 12, p 530-535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. A. Fahr, B. Rogé, and J. Thornton, Detection of Thermally Grown Oxides in Thermal Barrier Coatings by Nondestructive Evaluation, J. Therm. Spray Technol., 2006, 15, p 46-52

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. J. Zhang and V. Desai, Evaluation of Thickness, Porosity and Pore Shape of Plasma Sprayed TBC by Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy, Surf. Coat. Technol., 2005, 190(1), p 98-109

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  15. A. Abbate, W. Russell, J. Goldman, P. Kotidis, and C.C. Berndt, Nondestructive Determination of Thickness and Elastic Modulus of Plasma Spray Coatings Using Laser Ultrasonics, Review of Progress in Quantitative Nondestructive Evaluation, Vol 18, D.O. Thompson and D.E. Chimenti, Ed., Plenum, New York, 1998, p 373-380

    Google Scholar 

  16. Y.C. Zhou, T. Hashida, and C.Y. Jian, Determination of Interface Fracture Toughness in Thermal Barrier Coating System by Blister Tests, J. Eng. Mater. Technol. ASME, 2003, 125(2), p 176-182

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. H.L. Chen, B. Zhang, and M.A. Alvin, Nondestructive Detection of Delamination in Thermal Barrier Coatings using Ultrasonic Techniques, Proceedings of ASME Turbo Expo 2009, 2009, Orlando, FL

  18. W.S. Slaughter and V. Karaivanov, Personal Communication, University of Pittsburgh, Oct 2008

  19. A.D. Jadhav, P.N. Padture, E.H. Jordan, M. Gell, P. Miranzo, and E.R. Fuller, Jr., Low-Thermal-Conductivity Plasma-Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings with Engineered Microstructures, Acta Mater., 2006, 54, p 3343-3349

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  20. X.Q. Ma, Y. Mizutani, and M. Takemoto, Laser-induced Surface Acoustic Waves for Evaluation of Elastic Stiffness of Plasma Sprayed Material, J. Mater. Sci., 2001, 36(23), p 5633-5641

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. C.-D. Wang, W.-J. Wang, Y.-T. Lin, and Z.-W. Ruan, Wave Propagation in an Inhomogeneous Transversely Isotropic Material Obeying the Generalized Power Law Model, Arch. Appl. Mech., 2011, 81(6)

  22. J.A. Thompson, W. Ji, T. Klocker, and T.W. Clyne, Sintering of the Top Coat in Thermal Spray TBC Systems under Service Conditions, Ninth International Symposium on Superalloys, Seven Springs, Pennsylvania, 2000

  23. B.S. Tryon, Multi-layered Ruthenium-Containing Bond Coats for Thermal Barrier Coatings, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 2005

  24. E.H. Jordan and P.N. Padture, Superior Thermal Barrier Coatings for Industrial Gas-Turbine Engine Using a Novel Solution Plasma Spray Process, UTSR Final Report, 2007

  25. M. Ohki, Application of Indentation Test to the Evaluation of TBC Young’s Modulus, Recent Advancement of Theory and Practice in Hardness Measurement, 2007, Hardmeko, Vol. 19-21, p 41-46

  26. S. Paul, Using of Impulse Excitation Technique to Monitor the Effect of Heat Treatment on the Mechanical Behavior of Plasma Sprayed Coating, TBC Network Meeting, 2004, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK, p 1-18

Download references

Acknowledgments

The support from the NETL/DOE under Contract DE-AC26-04NT41817.606.01.01 is duly acknowledged. The authors wish to thank Richard Dennis at the NETL/DOE for extending his support in respect of this research. The authors acknowledge Meltem Yanar, Jerry Meier, Fred Pettit, Minking Chyu, William Slaughter, and Ventiz Karaivanov for their collaboration in this study and the bench-scale testing of TBC coupons under thermal cyclic loading. The authors also thank Jared Tannenbaum and Bruce Kang for their assistance in the isothermal testing of the coupons. The authors further acknowledge the research assistance from Joseph Sweet and Alan Chen during this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Hung-Liang Roger Chen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Chen, HL.R., Zhang, B., Alvin, M.A. et al. Ultrasonic Detection of Delamination and Material Characterization of Thermal Barrier Coatings. J Therm Spray Tech 21, 1184–1194 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-012-9811-9

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-012-9811-9

Keywords

Navigation