The effect of the thermal barrier coating on the displacement instability in thermal barrier systems

Thermal barrier systems are susceptible to instability of the thermally grown oxide (TGO) at the interface between the bond coat and the thermal barrier coating (TBC). The instabilities have been linked to thermal cycling and initial geometrical imperfections, as well as to misfit strains due to both oxide growth and thermal expansion misfit. Numerical simulations are used to investigate the role of the thermo-mechanical properties of the TBC in this instability. It is found that the TBC constrains the deformation, whereupon instabilities develop preferentially in regions where crack-like imperfections either pre-exist in the TBC or are created because of the induced stresses.