| EPSRC Reference: |
GR/L88160/01 |
| Title: |
IMPROVED RELIABILITY OF THERMAL BARRIER COATINGS |
| Principal Investigator: |
Atkinson, Professor A |
| Other Investigators: |
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| Project Partners: |
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| Department: |
Materials |
| Organisation: |
Imperial College London |
| Scheme: |
Standard Research (Pre-FEC) |
| Starts: |
01 June 1998 |
Ends: |
30 November 2001 |
Value (£): |
189,976
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| EPSRC Research Topic Classifications: |
| Materials Characterisation |
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| EPSRC Industrial Sector Classifications: |
| Aerospace, Defence and Marine |
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Summary on Grant Application Form |
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Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBC's) are used widely to protect aero gas turbine engine blades from the hot combustion gases, but to improve fuel efficiency in the next generation of engines, the TBC's will need to be more reliable and/or have better performance. This project aims to improve the reliability of predicting the lifetime of current TBC's by improving understanding of how coating defects initiate and grow. This will be achieved by using an optical microprobe to measure stress in the TBC and its local relief by the extension of defects; interpreting this by a fracture mechanics finite element model (FEM). The project will also investigate improving performance by removing the sharp interfaces that provide the failure paths in current TBCs. This will be done by producing a metal bond coat/alumina/zirconia layer structure with composition gradients at the two interfaces between the individual layers. The final zirconia layer will be deposited using a novel process. The optical microprobe and FEM approaches will then be used to optimise the grading profiles. Although the experiments will be on TBCs, the concepts and tools developed will be of relevance to all applications involving ceramic coatings.
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Key Findings |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Potential use in non-academic contexts |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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Impacts |
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| Description |
This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk |
| Summary |
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| Date Materialised |
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Sectors submitted by the Researcher |
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This information can now be found on Gateway to Research (GtR) http://gtr.rcuk.ac.uk
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| Project URL: |
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| Further Information: |
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| Organisation Website: |
http://www.imperial.ac.uk |