Effects of phase constituents/microstructure of thermally grown oxide on the failure of EB-PVD thermal barrier coating with NiCoCrAlY bond coat

A correlation among thermal cycling lifetime, bond coat surface preparation, phase constituents and microstructure of thermally grown oxide (TGO) was examined for electron beam physical vapor deposited (EB-PVD) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) consisting of ZrO₂-7 wt.% Y₂O₃ (YSZ) ceramic topcoat, NiCoCrAlY bond coats and CMSX-4 superalloy. Variation in the bond coat surface is characterized based on surface roughness modification and pre-oxidation (1100 °C at P_O2 of 10^-8 atm up to 4 h) carried out prior to YSZ deposition by EB-PVD. TBC specimens with pre-oxidized bond coats exhibited longer lifetimes than those without pre-oxidation, especially for metallographically polished bond coats. Given a surface roughness of NiCoCrAlY bond coats, TBC lifetime was observed to increase with an increase in the amount of α-Al₂O₃ in the initial thermally grown oxide (TGO) scale, which was detected by photostimulated luminescence (PL). Using focused ion beam in-situ lift out technique (FIB-INLO), site-specific preparation of thermally cycled TBC specimens for transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was successfully carried out. In addition to the presence of α-Al₂O₃, a small particulate phase identified as cubic Y₂O₃ was observed within the TGO scale by electron diffraction analysis on TEM.