A plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coating consisting of a NiCoCrAlY bon
d coat and Ce-stabilized zirconia ceramic coating was heat-treated at
400 degrees C for 1000 h, Microhardness measurements were used to eval
uate microstructural variations throughout the coating, One hundred an
d twenty measurements were performed at both the bond coat and ceramic
coating positions within the thermal barrier coating system, Both dat
a sets were analyzed to assess whether they could be described as Gaus
sian (i,e,, ''normal'') or Weibull distributions, The influence of the
sample size, i,e,, the number of microhardness tests for a group, on
the mean hardness value was also evaluated by a Monte Carlo simulation
procedure. The mean value, the standard deviation, the coefficient of
variation, and the Weibull modulus for the subsets of data were calcu
lated to assess these effects, The confidence for the mean value was a
lso considered, The results indicated that the reliability of the micr
ohardness test improved as the sample size increased, At least 20 meas
urements were needed to distinguish differences in microhardness betwe
en the bond coat and the ceramic coating at a 95% confidence level.