Experimental Studies of Mechanical and Microstructure Properties of Plasma Sprayed Thermal Barrier Coatings

Abstract

This research work mainly deals with the mechanical and microstructure properties of various thermal barrier coating (TBC) materials for an internal combustion engine piston using plasma spraying technique. Three thermal barrier coating Materials namely the combination of Aluminium Oxide with Titanium oxide (87%Al2O3 + 13%Tio2), Aluminium Oxide with Titanium oxide (97% Al2O3 +3%Tio2) and Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) (100%) were selected and coated on Aluminium Alloy(Al Ai) with the thickness of 150 Microns (µm) for this investigation. Among three Thermal barrier coating materials, Yttria Stabilized Zirconia showed better mechanical properties such as elongation (EL) of 6.25%, tensile strength TS of 106.06MPa and yield strength (YS) of 90.34MPa when compared with that of the base piston metal Aluminium Alloy (Al Ai). Further, better microstructure properties were also observed for YSZ (100%) in comparison with other thermal barrier coated materials.