Failure Mechanisms Investigation in Thermal Barrier Coatings under Isothermal and Non-sothermal Fatigue Loadings using Design of Experiments

In this article, failure and fracture mechanisms in an aluminum alloy (which has been used in diesel internal combustion engines), with and without ceramic thermal barrier coatings, have been investigated under isothermal and non-isothermal fatigue loadings. In this research, the base material is an aluminum-silicon-magnesium alloy and the thermal barrier coating includes a metallic bond coat layer with 150 µm thickness and a top coat layer, made of zirconia stabilized 8%wt. yttria with 350 µm thickness, which is applied on the substrate by the plasma thermal spray method. In order to study the failure and the sensitivity analysis, isothermal fatigue tests (or low-cycle fatigue tests at constant temperatures) and non-isothermal fatigue tests (or out-of-phase thermo-mechanical fatigue tests) were performed on test specimens. Then, fracture mechanisms in the aluminum alloy, were investigated by the scanning electron microscopy. After checking the fatigue damage and the failure analysis, the sensitivity of the material lifetime was studied based on different parameters (the temperature and the strain). Based on obtained results, the fracture surface of the aluminum alloy had dimples and therefore, its fracture was ductile. In thermal barrier coating, the damage mechanism was the separation between the substrate and the bond coat layer. The highest sensitivity was related to the strain parameter in fatigue tests of the aluminum alloy (with and without coating).