Stress analysis of high temperature ZrO2 insulation coatings on Ag using finite element method

The aim of this study is to investigate residual stresses occurred during cooling procedure of ZrO2 insulation coating on Ag substrate for magnet technologies. ZrO2 coatings were produced on Ag tape substrate by using a reel-to-reel sol-gel technique. SEM inspection showed that ZrO2 coatings had mosaic structures. ANSYS finite element software was used to calculate the temperature and stress distribution of the ZrO2/Ag structure. The effect of coating thickness on residual stresses was also examined. The results obtained showed that thermal stresses in ZrO2 coating and Ag substrate were considerably affected by the cooling time and coating thickness. It is concluded the thermal stresses increase with increase of film thickness.