Phenomena implied in suspension plasma spraying. Part 2 : zirconia particle treatment and coating formation

The first part of this paper was devoted to phenomena related to liquid injection in the Suspension Plasma Spraying (SPS) process. This second part emphasizes the solid particles treatment and the coating generation. A simplified theoretical approach is proposed to evaluate the influence of the numerous experimental parameters on heat and momentum transfers from the plasma jet to individual particles. It is shown that small solid particles vanish by vaporization and are very sensitive to plasma arc fluctuations and thermophoresis effect, which makes particles to escape from the jet. This study is completed by experimental investigations concerning, first, in-flight collection of particles and, second, coating elaboration. The importance of the particle size distribution of the injected powder and the parameters for the plasma generation is demonstrated, as their choice can give either porous or dense coatings.