Surface morphology of plasma spray coatings sprayed with mono-sized spherical alumina powder

摘要

A new method for the characterization of coating microstructures by means of surface morphology has been proposed. The distribution of shape and dimensions of splats were examined using quantitative analysis of scanning electron microscope images from the surface of the coatings. The results indicated that the surface morphology strongly depends on the spraying conditions, and the mechanism of coating formation could be suggested by the surface morphology. However, there were some difficulty for quantitative estimation of coating formation mechanism because of the widely dispersed distribution of shape and diameter of the powder used. In this study, the possibility of the quantitative estimation of coating formation mechanism from the surface morphology of plasma spray coatings was proposed by using mono-sized spherical alumina powder.