Explorations and 3D models of Atmospheric and Suspension Plasma Spraying coating microstructure

Plasma-spraying processing provides material with typical and complex microstructure. For simulating the mechanical, electrical, optical… properties of such materials, it is necessary to determine the numerical representation of the microstructure. Some techniques, like micro-tomography, give directly an image of the porosity. Although such methods are convenient, they don't allow modifications of the obtained structure, especially in order to observe the influence of the porosity parameters on the material properties. This work investigates the microstructure of Atmospheric Plasma Spraying (APS) and Suspension Plasma Spraying (SPS) coatings thanks to several analysis techniques such as Scanning Electron Microscopy, image analysis, Hg porosimetry or Ultra Small Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS). From the obtained different results, a flexible 3D representation of each coating is computed. •Description of coating microstructures obtained by Suspension Plasma Spraying•Description of coating microstructures obtained by Atmospheric Plasma Spraying•Analysis of the porosity network by different characterization tools•Modeling the porosity network by 3D representations of cracks and globular pores