Residual stress inspection by Eu3+ photoluminescence piezo-spectroscopy: An application in thermal barrier coatings

A non-destructive inspection technique was developed to measure the residual stresses in thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) by using Eu3+ photoluminescence piezo-spectroscopy. The new approach is based on the relationship between stress and the position of the main peak of D-5(0) -> F-7(2) transition, which is built by the high-pressure techniques. The Eu3+ luminescent sublayer was applied in the current method to ensure that the detected position in TBCs can be well controlled. The laser used to detect Eu3+ luminescence gives a proper penetration depth and spatial resolution, which make this method suitable to detect the stresses concentrated near the interfaces between different layers. This method was successfully applied in detecting residual stress in plasma sprayed TBCs with a 8YSZ:Eu (1 mol. %) sublayer. (C) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC.