Mixed-mode interfacial fracture toughness for thermal barrier coating

A new interfacial fracture test method was developed for measuring the mixed-mode interfacial fracture toughness of thermal barrier coated material over a wide range of loading phase angles. The principle of this developed method is based on peeling the coating from the substrate due to compressive loading to the coating edge, as forming a shear loading to the interface, and stinging loading such as beam bending, as normal loading to the interface. The complete closed form of the energy release rate and associated complex stress intensity factor for our testing method is shown. An yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) coating, which was sprayed thermally on Ni-based superalloy, was tested using the testing device developed here. The results showed that the energy release rate for the coating-interfacial crack increased with loading phase angle, which is defined by tan(-1) for a ratio of stress intensity factor K-2 to K-1. It was noticed that the interfacial energy release rate increasing with mode 11 loading could be mainly associated with the contact shielding effect due to crack surface roughness rubbing together. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.