Effects of initial oxidation on β phase depletion and oxidation of CoNiCrAlY bond coatings fabricated by warm spray and HVOF processes

Thermal barrier coatings (TBC) have been applied extensively onto the high-temperature components in turbine engines to prolong their service life in extremely harsh environments. TBCs are typically composed of a ceramic top coating for thermal insulation and a metallic bond coating (BC) for oxidation resistance and providing adhesion to the top coating. MCrAlY, where M stands for Co, Ni or an alloy of these elements, is a widely used material for BC and usually produced by low pressure plasma spraying (LPPS) in industry. Recently high velocity oxy-fuel (HVOF) spraying is attracting significant attention as a more economical alternative procedure to LPPS. In terms of the quality of sprayed coatings, however, LPPS is still superior in terms of oxygen pick-up during coating preparation, which should affect the performance as a bond coating in service. In this study, a modified HVOF process, so called 2-stage HVOF or warm spray (WS) was applied to deposit a CoNiCrAlY alloy. Comparisons between BCs fabricated by HVOF and WS were made in terms of microstructure, surface morphology, and cyclic and isothermal oxidation behaviors in air at 1423 K up to 100 cycles and 100 h respectively. The results showed that rougher and less oxidized BCs were deposited by the WS process, which exhibited slower kinetics of β-phase depletion during oxidation. A simple Al diffusion model revealed that apparently a small difference in the initial oxidation between the two spraying processes had significant influence on the β-depletion phenomena, which may influence the life time as a bond coating.