Damage mechanisms and lifetime behavior of plasma sprayed thermal barrier coating systems for gas turbines—Part I: Experiments

Detailed damage analyses of a plasma sprayed ZrO2/8 wt.–% Y2O3–MCrAlY–CMSX-4 TBC system during isothermal and cyclic oxidation tests with different dwell times at high temperature have been performed. The resulting failure mode, i.e. the particular delamination crack path, is strongly dependent on the temperature cycle applied. Isothermal exposure promotes crack propagation within the TGO, whereas thermal cycling shifts the crack path towards the TBC. Thermal cycling with dwell time at high temperature leads to a mixed delamination crack path (partly within TBC and TGO). The respective correlation between TBC lifetimes and duration of high temperature dwell time per cycle (cycle frequency) is shown and discussed.