Interface fracture toughness and fracture mechanisms of thermal barrier coatings investigated by indentation test and acoustic emission technique

Interface fracture toughness and fracture mechanisms of plasma-/sprayed thermal barrier coatings （TBCs） were investigated by interfacial indentation test （ HT） in combination with acoustic emission （ AE ） measurement. Critical load and AE energy were employed to calculate interface fracture toughness. The critical point at which crack appears at the interface was determined by the HT. AE signals produced during total indentation test not only are used to investigate the interface cracking behavior by Fast Fourier Transform （FFT） and wavelet transforms but also supply the mechanical information. The result shows that the AE signals associated with coating plastic deformation during indentation are of a more continuous type with a lower characteristic frequency content （30 -60 kHz） , whereas the instantaneous relaxation associated with interface crack initiation produces burst type AE signals with a characteristic frequency in the range 70 - 200 kHz. The AE signals energy is concentrated on different scales for the coating plastic deformation, interface crack initiation and interface crack propagation. Interface fracture toughness calculated by AE energy was 1. 19 MPam1/2 close to 1.58 MPam1/2 calculated by critical load. It indicates that the acoustic emission energy is suitable to reflect the interface fracture toughness.

Inverse analysis determining interfacial properties between metal film and ceramic substrate with an adhesive layer

In the present study, peel tests and inverse analysis were performed to determine the interracial mechanical parameters for the metal film/ceramic system with an epoxy interface layer between film and ceramic. Al films with a series of thicknesses between 20 and 250 μm and three peel angles of 90°, 135° and 180° were considered. A finite element model with the cohesive zone elements was used to simulate the peeling process. The finite element results were taken as the training data of a neural network in the inverse analysis. The interracial cohesive energy and the separation strength can be determined based on the inverse analysis and peel experimental result

DETERMINATION OF INTERFACIAL MECHANICAL PARAMETERS FOR AN Al/EPOXY/Al_2O_3 SYSTEM BY USING PEEL TEST SIMULATIONS

Peel test measurements and simulations of the interfacial mechanical parameters for the Al/Epoxy/Al2O3 system are performed in the present investigation. A series of Al film thicknesses between 20 and 250 microns and three peel angles of 90, 135 and 180 degrees are considered. Two types of epoxy adhesives are adopted to obtain both strong and weak interface adhesions. A finite element model with cohesive zone elements is used to identify the interfacial parameters and simulate the peel test process. By simulating and recording normal stress near the crack tip, the separation strength is obtained, Furthermore, the cohesive energy is identified by comparing the simulated steady-state peel force and the experimental result. It is found from the research that both the cohesive energy and the separation strength can be taken as the intrinsic interfacial parameters which are dependent on the thickness of the adhesive layer and independent of the film thickness and peel angle.