Chemical and Mechanical Consequences of Environmental Barrier Coating Exposure to Calcium-Magnesium-Aluminosilicate

The success of Si-based ceramics as high-temperature structural materials for gas turbine applications relies on the use of environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) with low silica activity, such as Ba1-xSrxAl2Si2O8 (BSAS), which protect the underlying components from oxidation and corrosion in combustion environments containing water vapor. One of the current challenges concerning EBC lifetime is the effect of sandy deposits of calcium-magnesium-aluminosilicate (CMAS) glass that melt during engine operation and react with the EBC, changing both its composition and stress state. In this work, we study the effect of CMAS exposure at 1300 degrees C on the residual stress state and composition in BSAS-mullite-Si-SiC multilayers. Residual stresses were measured in BSAS multilayers exposed to CMAS for different times using high-energy X-ray diffraction. Their microstructure was studied using a combination of scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy techniques. Our results show that CMAS dissolves the BSAS topcoat preferentially through the grain boundaries, dislodging the grains and changing the residual stress state in the topcoat to a nonuniform and increasingly compressive stress state with increasing exposure time. The presence of CMAS accelerates the hexacelsian-to-celsian phase transformation kinetics in BSAS, which reacts with the glass by a solution-reprecipitation mechanism. Precipitates have crystallographic structures consistent with Ca-doped celsian and Ba-doped anorthite.