Low-cycle fatigue of thermal-barrier coatings at 982 deg C

The low-cycle fatigue lives of ZrO2-NiCrAlY and Al2O3-ZrO2-NiCrAlY thermal-barrier coatings in air at 982 C were determined from cyclic flexural tests of coated TAZ-8A strips. Strains were computed as a function of specimen displacements from a nonlinear, three-dimensional stress analysis program. Fatigue resistances of thermal-barrier coatings applied to the strips were compared with those of uncoated and NiCrAlY-coated strips. The results indicate that ZrO2 is about four times greater in fatigue life than TAZ-8A at 982 C, that ZrO2 would probably retain that fatigue strength up to 1316 C, and that adding an outer coat of Al2O3 to ZrO2 is neither beneficial nor detrimental to fatigue resistance.