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Feasibility Study of an Adaptive-Pressure Plasma Coating Process—Part 1: Model Description

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Abstract

Thermal barrier coatings for gas turbine engines are mainly produced by electron beam physical vapor deposition or atmospheric plasma spray depending on the thermomechanical loading of engine components. This study deals with the numerical design of a two-step thermal plasma-aided physical vapor deposition process capable of efficiently evaporating the coating material processed in the plasma jet and of producing a strain-tolerant coating microstructure from vapor phase condensation. The system involved a high-pressure chamber and a low-pressure chamber connected by an expansion nozzle. The objective was to achieve the highest deposition efficiency for a given plasma specific enthalpy. The numerical simulations based on computational fluid dynamics and direct simulation Monte Carlo models projected the effect of the process geometry and operating conditions on the gas flow fields, powder vaporization efficiency and nucleation/growth phenomena in the gas phase. For a targeted powder feed rate, they allowed to determine the length of the high-pressure chamber, the diameter of the expansion nozzle and other dimensions of the deposition system. The expansion nozzle that linked the two chambers was the crucial component of the process, and the predictions made it possible to select the geometry and process operating parameters that avoided its clogging and/or melting.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Région Limousin (later merged into the Région Nouvelle-Aquitaine) for providing financial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Limoges, CNRS, The Institute of Research for Ceramics (IRCER), UMR 7315, 87000, Limoges, France

    Dmitrii Ivchenko, Gilles Mariaux, Armelle Vardelle & Simon Goutier

  2. Laboratoire Hubert Curien, University of Lyon, UJM-Saint-Etienne, CNRS, UMR 5516, 42023, St Etienne, France

    Tatiana E. Itina

  3. University of Clermont Auvergne, CNRS, LPC, UMR 6533, 63000, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Pascal André

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  1. Dmitrii Ivchenko
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Correspondence to Gilles Mariaux.

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This article is an invited paper selected from presentations at the 2019 International Thermal Spray Conference, held on May 26–29, 2019, in Yokohama, Japan, and has been expanded from the original presentation.

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Ivchenko, D., Mariaux, G., Vardelle, A. et al. Feasibility Study of an Adaptive-Pressure Plasma Coating Process—Part 1: Model Description. J Therm Spray Tech 29, 25–37 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11666-019-00948-z

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