Finite element simulation of a coating formation on a turbine blade during plasma spraying

The properties of an yttria partially stabilised zirconia thermal barrier coating and the formation of the coating itself are mainly influenced by plasma spraying process parameters (composition of the plasma, particle velocity and size, moving of the plasma torch, geometry of the substrate, distance of the plasma torch to the substrate, etc.). One goal of simulations was to investigate the temperature and stress distribution in a turbine blade and its three functional coatings during the coating formation in the plasma spraying process with variable process parameters. The variation of these parameters is considered in external simulations of the plasma-jet and the spraying powder movement and deposition. The obtained data at the surface of the turbine blade are applied as changing initial and boundary conditions to the transient Finite Element (FE) simulation of the formation of the thermal barrier coating. The modelling of the coating formation by a FE approach is the main subject of this work. The statistic behaviour of particles hitting the surface of the substrate was considered in this approach, which is based on the activation of predefined deactivated coating elements.