MODELING THE PRODUCTION AND PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS OF PLASMA-SPRAYED CERAMIC THERMAL BARRIER COATINGS

The present review describes current research on the numerical modelli ng of ceramic thermal sprayed coatings; both their manufacture and the ir performance during thermal cycling. Micromechanical approaches are described and discussed for the coating deposition process, and for th e constitutive description of the material produced. A decision suppor t system based on the numerical models is shown to be an effective way of collecting the knowledge produced and feeding back the results to industrial users. Finite element models are used to simulate the therm al and mechanical response to thermal cycling of coated components. Ex perimental test data is used to develop and validate the models. We co nsider two industrial applications; coated pistons (from automotive en gineering), and coated turbine blades (from aerospace engineering.).