Journal of the European Ceramic Society xxx (xxxx) xxx

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Journal of the European Ceramic Society

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jeurceramsoc

Friction delamination mechanism of EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings in

high-temperature and high-speed rotating service environment
H.Y. Chen b, J.J. Yan b, K. Cao a, Z.Y. Liu b, X. Wu b, L. Yang a, *, Y.C. Zhou a, *
a
School of Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, Xidian University, Xi’an 710126, China
b
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Xiangtan University, Hunan 411105, China

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: High-speed rotation is an indispensable working state in the service process of aero-engines, therefore, the
Thermal barrier coatings centrifugal load cannot be ignored in the failure analysis of thermal barrier coatings. However, due to the lack of
EB-PVD service environment simulators that can realize high-temperature as well as high-speed rotation, the failure
High-speed rotation
mechanism of high-speed rotation thermal barrier coatings is still unclear. Here, the effects of rotational speed
Gas thermal shock
Failure mechanism
variation on the service life and failure mode of thermal barrier coatings at high temperatures are studied by
experiments and finite element method (FEM). The results show that the service life of high-speed rotating
thermal barrier coatings decreases with the increase of rotational speed. The failure is mainly governed by the
thinning and spalling of the columnar crystal region of the ceramic layer and the delamination and exfoliation of
the equiaxed crystal region, rather than the abnormal growth of TGO. Further in-depth analysis shows that the
failure of high-speed rotating thermal barrier coatings is mainly due to the joint driving of centrifugal force and
wall shear stress, as well as the contribution of thermal fatigue at high temperatures. This work adds to the
understanding of the failure mechanism of thermal barrier coatings under extreme working conditions, and also
provides guidance for the safe and reliable service of thermal barrier coatings on working blades.

1. Introduction mechanism of thermal barrier coatings under high-speed rotational

Thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are recognized as essential key
materials for high-performance aero-engine and heavy-duty gas turbine
blades due to their excellent thermal protection properties [1–3]. Spe­
cifically, after depositing a thermal barrier coating with a thickness of
100–400 µm on its surface, the substrate temperature can be effectively
reduced by 100–200 ◦ C, which is equivalent to the sum of the im­
provements in superalloy technology in the past 30 years [4–7]. The
problems of premature spalling failure and large life dispersion have
always been the key issues that need to be solved urgently for the safe
application and development of thermal barrier coatings, and this
bottleneck is particularly prominent on high-speed rotating blades [8].
However, at this stage, the simulation assessment and performance
evaluation methods for thermal barrier coatings are mostly limited to
static conditions such as thermal cycle furnace and gas thermal shock
[9–13], which is inconsistent with the real service environment of
thermal barrier coatings on turbine rotor blades [14], and there are few
relevant experimental and theoretical reports. Therefore, it is imperative
to develop an in-service environment simulator to understand the failure
operation and to predict their lifetime.
Among the many factors that affect the spalling failure of thermal
barrier coatings, high-temperature gas thermal shock and high-speed
rotation are important ways to restore the internal gas velocity and
working state of the engine. At present, a certain amount of research has
been carried out [15–19], but the latter is more urgent. At this stage, the
spalling failure of electron beam physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD)
thermal barrier coatings under conventional service conditions mostly
occurs near the TGO/bond layer interface or inside the TGO layer
[20–23]. However, there are few public reports about the experimental
research on the failure mode of thermal barrier coatings under extreme
service conditions, because they not only bear the thermal load and
impact load of gas but also the consequences caused by high-speed
rotation (10,000–50,000 rpm), such as centrifugal loads, and the ef­
fects of turbulence, hot spots, and wake effect. Bruce et al. used a fixture
to drive the rotation of thermal barrier coatings and firstly achieved
low-speed centrifugal force simulation at 500 r/min [24]. More impor­
tantly, to truly understand the failure modes, mechanisms and key
causes of high-speed rotating thermal barrier coatings, it is far from

* Corresponding authors.
E-mail addresses: lyang-xd@xidian.edu.cn (L. Yang), yichunzhou@xidian.edu.cn (Y.C. Zhou).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2023.01.014
Received 1 August 2022; Received in revised form 29 November 2022; Accepted 7 January 2023
Available online 9 January 2023
0955-2219/© 2023 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Please cite this article as: H.Y. Chen, Journal of the European Ceramic Society, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeurceramsoc.2023.01.014
H.Y. Chen et al.
enough to obtain their performance through static or low-speed rotating
service environment simulations.
This paper is based on solving the key scientific problem of prema­
ture peeling and failure of thermal barrier coatings under extreme
working conditions. Therefore, a high-temperature-high-speed rotating
service environment simulation equipment is independently developed
to realize the equivalent simulation of high-speed rotation, high-
temperature gas and low-temperature cold air environment. The ser­
vice life and failure mechanism of EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings
under variable loads (0, 3000, 4000, 5000 rpm) of high-speed rotation
were studied through high-temperature-high-speed rotation tests and
finite element numerical simulation of fluid-structure coupling. It was
found that the high-temperature-high-speed rotating EB-PVD thermal
barrier coating exhibited a failure mode of thinning and spalling, and
when the vertical/tangential cracks propagated in the columnar crystal
region met the transverse cracks in the equiaxed crystal region, causing
the delamination of equiaxed crystals.
2. Experimental procedure
2.1. Selection and preparation of samples
The working blade in actual service has a structure with gradient
curvature, and the curvature of each point is different. The geometry of
the sample in this test quantitatively selects a specific curvature at the
leading edge of the working blade tip, which is because the gas impact
and erosion damage mostly occur in this region [25–27]. Thus, the
influencing factors are simplified, and the damage of thermal barrier
coating on the working blade at a specific area (leading edge, trailing
edge, suction surface and pressure surface) can be extracted separately.
The size of the sample used for high-speed rotation in the laboratory
is φ10 mm* 70 mm (cold air hole φ6 mm, the upper column height is 45
mm, and the bottom tenon height is 25 mm). The substrate material is
nickel-based superalloy 3536 (GH3536). Before spraying the bonding
layer, the substrate needs to be sandblasted with alumina powder (grain
size 40 ± 5 µm) to enhance the interlayer bonding ability [28]. Then, a
NiCrAlY bonding layer with a thickness of 80 µm was prepared by hy­
personic flame spraying (HVOF). The ceramic layer adopts the most
mature 8 wt% Y2O3-ZrO2 (8YSZ) at this stage, and the process adopts
electron beam physical vapor deposition technology (EB-PVD), and the
deposition thickness is about 120 µm. The detailed preparation param­
eters are shown in Table 1.
2.2. High-temperature and high-speed rotation tests based on
environmental simulator
To satisfy the service environment and working state simulation of
the interaction between high-temperature gas and high-speed rotation
of thermal barrier coating, a dynamic environment simulator of thermal
barrier coating was built independently, which mainly consists of a high-
temperature gas loading module, high-speed rotating rotor module, cold
air loading module and data real-time detection module. Its working
principle is shown in Fig. 1(a). The thermal barrier coating samples are
fixed at every 120◦ position on the turbine disk, and the high-speed main
shaft is connected with the turbine disk (diameter 300 mm) to realize its
high-speed rotation working state, as shown in Fig. 1(b). A certain
number of supersonic flame spray guns are evenly arranged along the
circumferential direction of the turbine model, and the number can be
determined according to the actual demand of the coating surface
temperature field. The atomized aviation kerosene and oxygen are
Table 1
EB-PVD deposition parameters.
Coating Temperature (K) Power percentage Rotation speed (rpm)
8YSZ 1173 ± 20 29.9% 12
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ignited in the combustion chamber of the spray gun, and a combustion
reaction occurs, and a high-temperature flame is sprayed to the surface
of the coating sample, as shown in Fig. 1(c). The cooling air flows
through the air inlet in the front section of the turbine disk under the
action of the pressure difference, and a part of the cooling air flows
through the inner wall of the cylindrical sample through the cooling air
through holes to cool the thermal barrier coating, which realizes the
simulation of the temperature gradient on the surface of the coating.
Part of it is used for cooling of high-speed spindles and other high-
temperature components. The detection system is turned on synchro­
nously to monitor the macroscopic topography evolution of the coating
surface and the real-time change of the temperature field.
The test parameters involved in the test are as follows: the thermal
shock temperature is 950 ◦ C, a total of 5 min of heating and heat pres­
ervation, and 5 min of cooling, that is, a complete thermal cycle test is
10 min. As shown in Fig. 1(b), the rotation direction of the thermal
barrier coating sample is counterclockwise (fixed at point O), and the
high-temperature gas direction is the same as the y-axis. Divide the
rotational speed into four nodes, namely 0, 3000, 4000, and 5000 rpm.
The criterion of thermal barrier coating spalling failure is that the area of
the coating spalling area accounts for 20% of the total area [29–31], the
number of cycles at this time is regarded as the critical thermal cycle
number, and the service life of the thermal barrier coating is the average
critical thermal cycles of three samples. The surface and interface mi­
crostructures of the thermal barrier coatings before and after service
were characterized by field-emission scanning electron microscope
(FE-SEM, EVO-MA10). The element species and distribution of the
thermal barrier coatings after service were determined by energy
dispersive spectroscopy (EDS).
Before the formal test starts, the real-time calibration and calibration
of the surface temperature of the high-speed rotating thermal barrier
coating is required. During the temperature calibration test, the gas
loading module, the cold gas loading module and the high-speed
rotating rotor module should be activated respectively to realize the
heating, cooling and speed adjustment of the sample surface, which are
consistent with the parameters and working conditions in the formal
test. In the temperature calibration test, the real-time contact tempera­
ture measurement of the thermocouple embedded on the surface of the
curvature thermal barrier coating is mainly used, and the K-type ther­
mocouple with a thickness of 0.1 mm is fixed by flame spraying. The
front-end conductive slip ring is connected to transmit the signal to the
acquisition system [32], and the temperature distribution curve during
the thermal cycle time is obtained by further analysis, as shown in Fig. 2.
The temperature measurement method of multi-color irreversible
temperature-indicating paint (Shijiazhuang Nalen Chemical, referred to
as TIP) on the surface is selected as auxiliary calibration, which is used to
record the peak temperature distribution of the sample surface in
real-time. During the actual test, the sample should be kept at the peak
temperature for 5 min to obtain the best color rendering effect [33]. By
comparing with the 800–1200 ℃ standard colorimetric card, the real
temperature range of the sample surface can be obtained. During the
test, to ensure the consistency of the surface temperature of the sample
under different rotational speed conditions, it is necessary to adjust the
gas parameters and the penetration distance of the spray gun.
2.3. Numerical simulation of service environment of high-speed rotating
thermal barrier coatings
Based on the numerical simulation method of fluid-structure inter­
action, the service environment of the thermal barrier coating under
Vacuum (torr) Oxygen content (sccm) Voltage (kV)
− 5 − 4
5 × 10 ~1 × 10 40 8–9
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Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of the high-temperature and high-speed rotating service environment simulator: (a) working principle; (b) high-speed rotating module; (c)
high-temperature gas loading module.

Fig. 2. Thermal cycle curves of thermal barrier coatings: (a) static working state; (b) high-speed rotating working state.

high-speed rotation is highly restored, and the temperature field and
wall shear stress distribution during service (That is, the relative airflow
velocity between the high-temperature airflow and the high-speed
rotating thermal barrier coating wall) are studied in detail, which
effectively makes up for the deficiency of real-time detection technology
under high-speed rotating working state. As shown in Fig. 3(a), a turbine
geometric model consistent with the dynamic environment simulation
device is established, which consists of a solid domain and a fluid
domain, and the parameters involved in the simulation calculation are in
one-to-one correspondence with the experiments.
In the solid domain, the curvature thermal barrier coating is
simplified as one layer, and the thickness of the 8YSZ coating is 200 µm.
And the microstructure and internal defects of EB-PVD thermal barrier
coating are ignored. According to the characteristics of the EB-PVD
preparation process, the surface roughness of the coating was set as a
fixed value. In the numerical simulation, both the coating and the

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Fig. 3. Finite element model of high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating: (a) geometric model; (b) finite element meshing.

substrate material are assumed to be isotropic and homogeneous elastic

materials, and their material parameters are considered to be indepen­
dent of temperature. The detailed parameters are shown in Table 2
[34–36]. The thermal boundary condition of the fluid-solid interface is
set to coupled heat transfer. At the same time, to improve the calculation
accuracy, the mesh is further refined in the mainstream area close to the
thermal barrier coating.
In the fluid domain, the high-temperature gas and low-temperature
cold gas satisfy the equations of mass conservation, momentum con­
servation and energy conservation during the flow process, and are
assumed to be ideal gases [37]. The gas inlet boundary conditions are set
to the total inlet temperature (Tt, inlet), the total inlet pressure (Pt, inlet),
and the outlet boundary conditions to static pressure (Ps, outlet). The cold
gas inlet boundary conditions are set as the total temperature of the cold
gas inlet (Tt, inlet, coolant) and the total pressure of the cold gas inlet (Pt,
inlet, coolant). The specific fluid boundary conditions are shown in Table 3.
The rotational computational domain as shown in Fig. 3(b) contains all
the solid domain and part of the fluid domain, and rotates around the
y-axis at speeds of 0, 3000, 4000, and 5000 rpm, where the displace­
ment in the y direction is zero, and the displacement in the x and z di­
rections is free.
3. Results and discussions
3.1. High-temperature service life of high-speed rotating EB-PVD thermal
barrier coatings
During the test, a high-speed CCD camera was used to photograph
the surface of the cylindrical thermal barrier coating samples for a
certain number of cycles to capture the real-time subtle changes in the
surface morphology of the sample, as shown in Fig. 4. The spalling po­
sition of the static (0 rpm) thermal barrier coating in Fig. 4(b) occurred
in the frontal region (y direction) at 90◦ to the high-temperature gas, and
spalled in the form of flakes. With the further increase of the rotation
speed (3000, 4000, 5000 rpm), the corresponding macroscopic spalling
Table 2
Temperature independent material parameters for vane and YSZ.
Property of Material Vane 8YSZ
Density (kg⋅m− 3) 8700 5500
Specific heat capacity (J⋅Kg− 1⋅K− 1) 440 418
Thermal conductivity (W⋅m− 1⋅K− 1) 88 1.65
Young’s modulus (GPa) 200 100
Poisson’s ratio 0.35 0.2
Coefficient of thermal expansion (10− 6/ºC) 18 12
Table 3
The detailed parameters of boundary conditions for the fluid domain.
Pt, inlet (MPa) Pt, inlet, coolant (MPa) Tt, inlet (K) Tt, inlet, Ps, outlet (MPa)
coolant (K)
1.2 0.8 1223 K 373 0.5
positions and spalling forms of the thermal barrier coatings in Fig. 4(c),
Fig. 4(d) and Fig. 4(e) are similar. It occurs on the left side (x direction)
at about 45◦ to the high-temperature gas, that is, the side that first comes
into contact with the high-temperature gas, and peels off sequentially
from top to bottom. Fig. 5 shows the macroscopic spalling failure process
of the thermal barrier coating in the high-speed rotation working state
more clearly. It is found that the spalling area is approximately an
inverted triangle shape, and the spalling form presents random spalling
in the form of dots. And compared with the static state in Fig. 4(b), the
thermal barrier coating under the high-speed rotating state in Fig. 5
shows a process of increasing roughness around the peeling area.
The high-speed rotation has a significant impact on the service life of
EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings, and it decreases with the increase of
rotational speed, as shown in Fig. 6. In summary, the macroscopic
spalling position and spalling form of high-speed rotating thermal bar­
rier coatings are completely different from those in the static working
state. And the huge difference in their lifespan manifest again that the
mechanical load caused by high-speed rotation and its complex inter­
action with high-temperature gas is very likely to add a new key
incentive for the spalling failure of thermal barrier coatings, so further
in-depth research is necessary.
3.2. Failure mechanism of high-speed rotating EB-PVD thermal barrier
coatings
3.2.1. Microscopic failure behavior of EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings at
different rotational speeds
In Fig. 7, backscattered electron imaging in FE-SEM was used to
analyze the microstructure of the thermal barrier coating samples that
failed at different rotational speeds. It is found that both the section and
surface of the original sample in Fig. 7(a) show a typical columnar
structure with a thickness of about 120 µm, and the surface interface is
intact. The internal oxidation of the thermal barrier coating at rest
(0 rpm) is unusually obvious in Fig. 7(b), and the formed voids and
oxides will lead to further crack propagation, thereby weakening the
interfacial bonding between the ceramic layer and the bonding layer,
resulting in peeling failure in the bonding layer and its interface.
However, the thermal barrier coating interface position of the high-

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H.Y. Chen et al.
Fig. 4. Macro-morphology of thermal barrier coating with thermal cycling failure at different rotational speeds: (a) original sample; (b) 0 rpm; (c) 3000 rpm; (d)
4000 rpm; (e) 5000 rpm.
Fig. 5. Macroscopic morphology evolution of thermal barrier coatings at 3000 rpm.
speed rotating thermal barrier coating in Fig. 7(c), (d) and (e) are
relatively intact, and the thermally grown oxide layer (TGO) and the
bonding layer is close to horizontal, and the growth is slow and dense. In
Fig. 7(c), the maximum thickness is only about 1.35 µm, which does not
constitute a weak link for coating peeling but is beneficial to the stability
of the structure. At this time, the columnar crystals inside the ceramic
layer have been seriously damaged or even broken, the ceramic layer as
a whole shows a trend of thinning and spalling, and the fractures at
different heights are relatively flat. Compared with the static working
state in Fig. 7(b), the microscopic failure positions of the thermal barrier
coating at different rotational speeds all occurred inside the ceramic
layer, rather than the position of the bonding layer and the thermally
grown oxide layer.
To further clarify the detailed failure process of the EB-PVD thermal
barrier coating under high-speed rotation, the microscopic character­
ization of the thermal barrier coating samples removed with different
thermal cycles is shown in Fig. 8. It can be found that there is an equi­
axed crystal region between the columnar crystal region of the ceramic
layer and TGO.In Fig. 8(a), vertical cracks, shear cracks, and transverse
cracks were observed microscopically on the surface section after 20
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Journal of the European Ceramic Society xxx (xxxx) xxx
cycles, and they extended from the columnar crystal region to the
equiaxed crystal region, and further expanded in the equiaxed crystal
region. It is found that the columnar crystal region has been cut into
several small segments at this time, and the unique columnar crystal
structure is no longer obvious. As the thermal cycle progresses, the
critical process of the top of the ceramic layer breaking due to defor­
mation is captured in Fig. 8(b), forming this unique top-down stepped
thinning and spalling morphology, which eventually leads to the exfo­
liation failure inside the equiaxial crystal region or at the junction with
the columnar crystal region is shown in Fig. 8(c).
The above results show that the change of rotational speed has a
significant impact on the microscopic failure position and failure
behavior of the thermal barrier coating, especially the transition from
static to high-speed rotation. The resulting high-speed rotation itself
(3000, 4000, and 5000 rpm) has a similar effect on the failure mode due
to the smaller gradient of the rotational speed change throughout the
test. The typical failure mode on the traditional static burner test rig is
mostly driven by oxidation (TGO) and thermal cycling/fatigue, which is
different with the failure mode under high-speed rotating working
conditions. The distribution of Zr and Y elements in Fig. 9 is enough to
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3.2.2. Finite element analysis of failure mechanism of thermal barrier

coatings
The numerical simulation method based on fluid-structure interac­
tion highly restores the service environment of thermal barrier coatings
under high-speed rotation. The temperature and wall shear distribution
of the high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating were obtained from
the simulation, as shown in Figs. 10 and 11. The simulation of wall shear
can better predict the failure position of high-speed rotating thermal
barrier coating, focusing on the influence of the change of contact angle
between high-speed airflow and the wall of thermal barrier coating on
its failure position.From the cloud map of the temperature field, it can be
seen that the high-temperature regions of the thermal barrier coating at
different rotational speeds are all distributed in the front, the left side is
the low-temperature region, and the higher temperature regions differ
by as much as 100–300 ◦ C. Compared with the static working state in
Fig. 10(a), the distribution area of the high-temperature region of the
thermal barrier coating in the high-speed rotation in Fig. 10(b) is greatly
reduced, indicating that the high-speed rotation increases the coupled
heat transfer frequency and improves the thermal barrier. The overall
Fig. 6. Life distribution diagram of thermal barrier coating at different rota­
tional speeds.
cooling effect on the surface of the coating results in a higher temper­
ature gradient across the surface, resulting in a significant reduction in
service life. It can be seen from the wall shear stress cloud diagram that
confirm that the failure position of high-speed rotating thermal barrier
the left side (peeling surface) of the high-speed rotating thermal barrier
coating occurs in the ceramic layer, specifically inside the equiaxed
coating is the only area with the largest wall shear stress, and it increases
crystal region and at the junction with the columnar crystal region.The
slightly with the increase of the rotational speed. In short, the spalling
distribution of Al elements indicates that this is a new failure mode in­
failure of the high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating did not occur
dependent of the abnormal growth of TGO. Because the thermal cycle
on the front side with the highest temperature, but on the left side with
temperature of the high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating is 950 ◦ C
the largest wall shear stress. thus, it is confirmed that the peeling failure
and the service time is short, it is not enough to cause the phase trans­
of the high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating is inseparable from
formation or sintering of 8YSZ, and the cooling time is extended to
the force and position of the high-speed airflow (wall shear stress). The
5 min, and the transient cooling does not seem to play a major role.
wall shear stress obtained in this paper corresponds to the entire sample
Taken together, the large difference in lifetime and failure mode in­
area, and is further converted to a single columnar crystal, it is found
dicates that the spalling failure of thermal barrier coatings is closely
that the stress it bears has reached the level of MPa, which is enough to
related to the effect of centrifugal force. Compared with the static state,
have an important impact on the damage and even spalling of the
the change of macroscopic spalling position and the signs of microscopic
thermal barrier coating.
thinning spalling also indicate that the spalling failure of thermal barrier
coatings is closely related to the action and location of high-speed
3.2.3. Failure mechanism diagram of the high-speed rotating thermal
airflow (wall shear stress).
barrier coating
The failure modes of high-speed rotating TBCs are mostly the frac­
ture failure of the ceramic layer itself, supplemented by the interface

Fig. 7. Microstructure of thermal barrier coatings with thermal cycling failure at different rotational speeds: (a) original sample; (b) 0 rpm; (c) 3000 rpm; (d)
4000 rpm; (e) 5000 rpm.

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Fig. 8. Microstructure evolution diagram of thermal barrier coating at 3000 rpm: (a) 20 cycles; (b) 30 cycles; (c) 43 cycles.

Fig. 9. Cross-sectional microscopic and EDS mapping of 8YSZ thermal barrier coating.

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Fig. 10. The diagram of the surface temperature of thermal barrier coating: (a) static working state; (b) high-speed rotating working state.

Fig. 11. Wall shear Stress of Thermal Barrier Coatings: (a) 0 rpm; (b) 3000 rpm; (c) 4000 rpm; (d) 5000 rpm.

failure. Fig. 12 shows the real microscopic failure behavior diagram of
the high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating. On this basis, it is
further combined with the finite element simulation results to summa­
rize the failure mechanism diagram of the high-speed rotating EB-PVD
thermal barrier coating. As shown in Fig. 13, the specific failure mode
is as follows: one of the columnar crystal regions of the ceramic layer
mostly exhibits a failure mode of thinning and spalling, generally thin­
ning to the interface between the columnar crystal region and the
equiaxed crystal region. Under the combined action of high-speed
rotation and high-temperature gas load, a few micro-cracks are
formed at the head of the columnar crystal region. With the intensifi­
cation of the load, the micro-cracks further increase, grow and merge,
resulting in the appearance of macroscopic shear/transverse cracks. At
first, the head is bent and broken, and the process of synchronous
fracture at different heights in the columnar crystal region; the failure
mode of internal cracking in the equiaxed crystal region of the second

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Fig. 12. Microscopic failure modes of high-speed rotating EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings.

interface.

4. Conclusions

Starting from the high-temperature-high-speed rotation test and the

finite element numerical simulation method of fluid-structure coupling,
the influence of rotational speed changes on the high-temperature ser­
vice life and failure mode of EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings was
studied. Finally, the key causes of failure mode transition of high-speed
rotating thermal barrier coatings are analyzed, and the failure mecha­
nism of high-speed rotating EB-PVD thermal barrier coatings is sum­
marized. The main conclusions are as follows:

Fig. 13. Failure mechanism diagram of high-speed rotating EB-PVD thermal
barrier coatings.
ceramic layer, the columnar crystal region is relatively complete at this
time. To reduce the strain energy of the coating itself during service,
some vertical cracks will be derived from the columnar crystal region of
the ceramic layer. At this time, the stress of the equiaxed crystal area is
relatively concentrated, and the damage and accumulation of transverse
cracks are continuously formed so that the strength of the equiaxed
crystal area of the ceramic layer decreases. After a long-term thermal
cycle, the vertical crack further extends to the equiaxed crystal region
and meets the transverse crack, resulting in a process of delamination
failure; the third is the composite failure mode of the above two, that is,
the continuous reduction in the columnar crystal region of the ceramic
layer at the same time of thin peeling, the equiaxed crystal region is also
continuously damaged and accumulated to form transverse cracks,
which intersect with the vertical cracks extended from the columnar
crystal region, resulting in a mode of thinning and delamination at the
(1) The high-speed rotation test results show that the change of
rotational speed has a significant impact on the macroscopic
morphology and high-temperature service life of the thermal
barrier coating, especially the transition from static to high-speed
rotation. Among them, the macroscopic spalling position of the
high-speed rotating thermal barrier coating occurs on the left side
at about 45◦ to the high-temperature gas, and the spalling area is
in the shape of an inverted triangle; with the intensification of the
high-speed rotating load, the high-temperature service life of the
thermal barrier coating decreased significantly.
(2) The microscopic results show that the change of rotational speed
has a significant effect on the failure mode of the thermal barrier
coating. Among them, the failure mode of the high-speed rotating
thermal barrier coating is mostly the fracture failure of the
ceramic layer itself, supplemented by the interface failure, and is
identified as a new failure mode unrelated to the abnormal
growth of TGO. Specifically, the columnar crystal region of the
ceramic layer mostly exhibits the failure mode of thinning and
spalling, generally thinning to the interface between the
columnar crystal region and the equiaxed crystal region, or a
failure mode of falling off inside the equiaxed crystal region.
(3) The experimental analysis and theoretical simulation together
show that the spalling failure of high-speed rotating thermal
barrier coatings is mainly driven by centrifugal force and wall
shear stress, and a part is contributed by thermal fatigue at high-
temperature.

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Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing financial
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation
of China (Grant Nos. 51590891, 11890684 and 51672233).
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