Thermal spray coatings are used extensively for protection of engineering components and structures in a variety of applications. Due to the nature of thermal spraying process, the coating thermal, mechanical, and electrical properties depend strongly on the coating microstructure, which consists of many individual splats, interfaces between the splats, defects and voids. The coating microstructure, in turn, is determined by the thermal spray process parameters. In order to relate coating process parameters to the final coating performance, then, it is desirable to relate coating microstructure to coating properties. In this work, thermal conductivity is used as the physical parameter of interest. Thermal conductivity of thermal spray coatings is studied by using an image analysis-based approach of typical coating cross sections. Three coating systems, yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), molybdenum, and Ni-5wt.%Al are explored in this work. For each material, thermal conductivity is simulated by using a microstructure image-based finite element analysis model. The model is then applied to high temperature conditions (up to 1200 °C) with a hot stage-equipped scanning electron microscope imaging technique to assess thermal conductivity at high temperatures. The coating thermal conductivity of metallic coatings is also experimentally measured by using a high-temperature laser flash technique.
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