Scale-progressive healing mechanism dominating the ultrafast initial sintering kinetics of plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings

Abstract The thermal insulating performance of plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings (PS-TBCs) depends dominantly on inter-splat pores, which would be inevitably healed during high temperature exposure. The sintering kinetics of TBCs appears to be highly stage-sensitive. However, the ultrafast sintering kinetics during the initial sintering stage is not yet well understood. In this study, the sintering behavior of PS-TBCs was investigated in a scale-progressive (from nano- to micro-scale) way. Moreover, a novel healing mechanism suitable for lamellar TBCs was proposed based on a combined-effect of material and pore structure. Regarding the changing behavior of material, nano-scale roughening can be found at the as-deposited smooth pore surface after thermal exposure. Regarding the 2D featured inter-splat pores, the roughening behavior facilitates multiple contacts between the counter-surfaces of inter-splat pores. As a result, micro-scale bridge-connection can be observed at the healed parts. This multiple contacts mechanism caused by scale-progressive healing behavior significantly accelerated the matter transfer, resulting in ultrafast sintering kinetics at the initial sintering stage.