High-Temperature Coating Behaviors

Thermal barrier coatings are thin ceramic layers applied to metal components inside gas turbine engines to shield them from temperatures that would otherwise cause rapid degradation, enabling engines to run hotter and more efficiently than the underlying alloys could withstand on their own. Research in this area examines how materials like rare-earth zirconates behave under extreme heat and corrosive combustion gases, how deposition processes such as plasma spraying and cold spray affect the microstructure and bonding of the resulting layers, and how oxidation accumulates at the interface between the ceramic and the metal over thousands of operating hours. A central challenge is extending coating lifetime without sacrificing the low thermal conductivity that makes these materials effective in the first place, since the microcracking and phase changes that develop at high temperatures can compromise both properties simultaneously. Active work is pushing toward coatings that survive higher operating temperatures and harsher fuel chemistries, with particular attention to understanding how processing conditions govern long-term durability at the microscale.

Works

56,856

Total citations

812,558

Keywords

Thermal Barrier CoatingsGas Turbine EnginesCold Spray DepositionHigh-Temperature CorrosionPlasma SprayingRare-Earth Zirconates