Thermal barrier coating life and isothermal oxidation of low-pressure plasma-sprayed bond coat alloys

The paper investigates the isothermal oxidation kinetics of Ni-35Cr-6Al-0.95Y, Ni-18Cr-12Al-0.3Y, and Ni-16Cr-6Al-0.3Y low-pressure plasma-sprayed bond coat alloys and examines the effect of these alloys on the thermal barrier coating (TBC) cyclic life. TBC life was examined by cycling substrates coated with the different bond coats and a ZrO2-7 wt pct Y2O3 TBC in an air-rich burner rig flame between 1150 C and room temperature. The oxidation kinetics of the three bond coat alloys was examined by isothermal oxidation of monolithic NJiCrAlY coupons at 1083 C. The Ni-35Cr-6Al-0.95Y alloy exhibits comparatively high isothermal oxidation weight gains and provides the longest TBC life, whereas the Ni-16Cr-6Al-0.3Y alloy had the lowest weight gains and provided the shortest TBC life. The results show that, although bond coat oxidation is known to have a strong detrimental effect on TBC life, it is not the only bond coat factor that determines TBC life.