Oxidation behavior of double-ceramic-layer thermal barrier coatings deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying and suspension plasma spraying

This paper focuses on the oxidation behavior of novel double-ceramic-layer thermal barrier coatings (DCL TBCs) deposited by atmospheric plasma spraying (APS) and suspension plasma spraying (SPS). Four kinds of APS-SPS DCL TBCs with dense/porous columnar structured or vertically cracked microstructures were prepared. The oxidation behavior of the APS-SPS DCL TBCs were tested and the underlying mechanisms were further discussed. Results showed that the developed APS-SPS DCL TBCs have a better oxidation resistance than the single layer SPS TBC that was tested for comparison. In the long-term oxidation, the thermally grown oxide (TGO) can be divided into two layers, the outer mixed oxide and inner Al₂O₃ layer, in which the growth rate of mixed oxide in TGO changed during oxidation. In terms of the oxidation rate and oxidation lifetime, segmented APS-SPS TBCs has a slightly better performance than the columnar APS-SPS TBCs. Among the four different APS-SPS TBCs, the segmented dense APS-SPS TBCs with low vertical crack density appears to have more potential to be used for industrial application.