Design of experiment study of plasma sprayed alumina-titania coatings

摘要

An experimental study of the plasma spraying of alumina-titania powder is presented in this paper. This powder system is being used to fabricate heater tubes that emulate nuclear fuel tubes for use in thermal-hydraulic testing. Coating experiments were conducted using a Taguchi fractional-factorial design parametric study. Operating parameters were varied around the typical spray parameters in a systematic design of experiments in order to display the range of plasma processing conditions and their effect on the resultant coating. The coatings were characterized by hardness and electrical tests, image analysis, and optical metallography. Coating qualities are discussed with respect to dielectric strength, hardness, porosity, surface roughness, deposition efficiency, and microstructure. The attributes of the coatings are correlated with the changes in operating parameters.