Transient thermal stress due to the penetration of calcium-magnesium-alumino-silicate in EB-PVD thermal barrier coating system

Abstract Electron beam-physical vapor deposited (EB-PVD) thermal barrier coating system (TBCs) are vulnerable to the degradations induced by the penetration of calcium- magnesium-alumino-silicate (CMAS). In this work, we conduct a numerical study to investigate the effect of CMAS penetration on the development of transient thermal stress in EB-PVD TBCs with the columnar microstructure. A two-dimensional periodical model is developed, taking into account the columnar microstructure of EB-PVD TBCs and the CMAS penetration. We found that the CMAS penetration would induce a field of high in-plane tensile stress in TC upon the rapid cooling, promoting the initiation of the vertical cracks from top surface toward to the bottom of TC. Meanwhile, the accumulation of out-of-plane tensile stress tends to occur at the side edges of EB-PVD columns near three main regions: closely beneath the top surface of TC, at the interface between CMAS penetrated and non-penetrated zone, and close to the TC/BC interface. Therefore, the horizontal cracks are likely to initiate from the side edges of EB-PVD columns at these three regions, which agrees well with experiments.