TSINGHUA SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

ISSN 100? 0214 18/22 ppl353 1357

Volume 4, Number 1, March 1999

Thermal Stress Relaxation of Nonhomogeneous Coatings

XUQianjun ( Í H - ^ ) , YUShou/ven ( ^ i L ) f , KANGYilan ( ^ ^ i ) f t

Department of Hydraulic and Hydro power Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084;
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084;
Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tianjin University, líanjin 300072

Abstract Nonhomcgeneous coatings ( NCs) are new type of engineering structures that is not yet fully understood.
One important aspect in the mechanical analysis of NCs is to determine the gradient distribution that creates the
maximum thermal stress relaxation. This paper employs numerical analysis using the finite element method and
experimental analysis using moi re interference to study the stress distribution i n NCs Attention focused on the edge
effect stresses in the coating/substrate structures and their dependence on the different gradent distributions of this
new kind of composite structure.

Keywords nonhomogeneous coating; finite element method; moire interference; gradient cistributi on

ceramic powders which is then sprayed onto the

Introduction
Metal - ceramic nonhomogeneous coatings (NCs)
weie developed from thermal barrier coatings used in
the aviation and aerospace fields. The original coating
materials were pure ceramics, which usually suffered
severe residual stresses because of the thermal
mismatch. T h e residual stresses may create a number
of undesirable problems, such as void formation,
spalling and cracking in the coating/substrate
systems. Great efforts have been made to resolve
these problems, aiming to optimize the fabrication
process. An alternative is to develop an intermediate
layer between the metal substrate and ceramic
coating. The intermediate layer is composed of
another metal or alloy with elastic behavior between
the substrate and the coating. T h e transition in
mechanical properties between the substrate and the
coating is still discontinuous, but this layer can reduce
the thermal stresses to a certain degree. However, a
recent development called functionally gradient
materials ( F G M ) or, in the present problem,
nonhomogeneous coatings, is a mixture of metal and
Manuscript received: 1997- 12-23
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of
China (No. 19572047)
substrate. Since the Young modulus, E, the Poisson
ratio, VJ and the thermal expansion coefficient, a, of
NCs vary continuously, they much more effectively
reduce the thermal mismatch than an intermediate
layer.
T h e mechanical properties of NCs are largely
dependent on the distribution of the volume fraction
of the metal (or the ceramic) powder along the
thickness of the layer. Extensive theoretical and
numerical studies have investigated the thermal stress
distribution and fracture in nonhomogeneous
materials. Delale and Erdogan discussed some basic
fracture mechanics problems for a single crack in
nonhomogeneous elastic materials under mechanical
loads ' . Noda and Jin extended their work by
including thermal loads ' . They transferred the
boundary value problem into a singular integer
equation using Fourier transform. Shen and Yu
studied the stress in an FGM layer on the surface of a
structural component with the asymptotic method .
Zhang et al investigated the design and fabrication
aspects of FGM ' . Experimental observations of
multiple cracking in a NiAhAhCb FGM layer under
bending have been made by Lannutti , but
measurements of the edge effect stresses are lacking.
T h e analysis described in this paper uses the finite
 1354 Tsinghua Science and Technology, March 1999, 4 (1): 1353-1357

element method ( F E M ) and moire interference. T h e neat" the gradient layer. T h e analysis uses a total of
study focuses on the edge effect stresses for different 4011 elements.
gradient distributions.

1 Effects of Gradient Distribution on

Stress Relaxation of Nonhomo-
geneous Coatings ex

A typical coating structure is illustrated in

Fig. 1. T h e parameters for the substrate S and
coating C are tabulated in Table 1. Since the
discontinuous change of thermoelastic properties surface -<- - interface
between substrate and coating will result in severe
stress concentration at the interface, especially at the Fig. 2 Different gradients of the metallic phase in the
edge, even if the mismatch is not large , the use of coating
NCs can significantly reduce the thermal stresses.
The temperature variation is assumed to be
- 60 C between the top and the bottom. T h e
^C calculated distributions of °y and \ r a t the interface of
the substrate S and the NC lamina in Fig. 2 are
shown in Fig. 3. In Fig. 3 , X/L means
dimensionless length.
T h e smallest peak stress values, for both the
Fig. 1 Nonhomogeneous mating/substrate structure peeling stress and the shear stress were in ( 2 ) of
Fig. 2, followed by that of (3) and then ( 4 ) . T h e
Table 1 Elastic properties of the substrate and coating[10]

material £/MPa ax 10" 6 /°C

substrate(S) 4500 0 37 30
ooating(G) 2000 O 37 60
Ь o
Experience has shown that different gradients of
the metal concentration in the coating can
significantly influence the entire mechanical
performance of the N C , thus affecting the thermal -1.0 -0.5 0.0
stress distribution. However, optimization criteria X/L

have not yet been determined since the mechanisms

(a) corresponding to (1) of Fig. 2
are not fully understood. T he effect of different
gradient distributions ( Fig. 2) on the edge effect
stresses is analyzed in this paper.
rxy ,
In the FEM analysis, the substrate and the
nonhomogeneous coating are modelled as linearly 2 I- I

elastic, and the elastic properties of the coating vary OH

through its thickness. It is assumed that the * o ^ ^ ^ ,

nonhomogeneous coating is composed of 5 laminae
and the elastic properties for each lamina and the
_0 I I
substrate are homogeneous ( t h e material at the -1.0 -0.5 0.0
surface, denoted as C, is the fifth lamina). X/L
However, since the interface between two laminae is
artificial one because the NC composition variation is ( b) corresponding to ( 2) of Fig. 2

continuous, t h e mesh density in the thickness Fig 3 Stresses distribution along the S and
direction is uniform. As the thickness of the gradient NC layer interface
layer is quite small, most of the elements are located
 XU Qianjun (%"f~ Щ-) et al: Thermal Stress Relaxation of N onhomogeneous Coatings 1355

lines bb and aa in Fig. 4 are shown in Figs. 7 and 8.

T h e corresponding results obtained by FEM are also
shown in these figures. The calculated results agree
well with the experimental results.
Рч

-*£-
-1.0 -0.5 0.0
X/L

10 35
( c) corresponding to ( 3) of Fig. 2

(a) NC

yA

-1.0 -0.5 0.0

X/L

(b) PBC
( d) corresponding to ( 4) of Fig. 2

Fig 3 Stresses distribution along the S and Fig. 4 Two experimental specimens (length unit: mm)
NC layer interface ( continued)
13 1250
maximum peak stress values were in (1) of Fig. 2.
T h e results indicate that proper variation of the
gradient can significantly reduce t h e residual thermal
stresses and that the gradient should vary rapidly near
7.2 2600
the coating surface and slowly near the
coating/substrate interface for the smallest residual (a) NC
thermal stresses.
13 1250
2 Comparison with Experimental I
Results
T o validate the calculation, moire inter
ference was employed to analyze t w o special cases 7.2 2600
shown in Fig. 4 . One was a linearly distributed NC,
while the other was a pure bimaterial coating called (b) PBC
PBC. The elastic parameters are shown in Fig. 5.
Fig. 5 Material parameters
T h e units for Young modulus E, and the thermal
expansion coefficient a are M P a and 1 С Г / С ,
respectively. The Poisson ratio for the two materials
3 Concluding Remarks
is 0 . 3 7 . T h e temperature variation was set at ( 1 ) T h e FEM analysis shows that the effects of
- 54 °C. the distribution gradient aie important. A smaller
T h e displacement fields ( Ux and Uy) aie shown gradient near the interface provides better relaxation
in Fig. 6. T h e strain and stress fields in the of the residual thermal stresses. This result agrees
specimens can be calculated from the results of with that obtained by Zhang et al. and Tang
Fig. 6. T h e distributions of °X7 °y and \ y along the et aL Such a gradient will also improve wear
1356 Tsinghua Science and Technology, March 1999, 4 ( 1 ) : 1353-1357

(a) MC Ux fields (b) PBC Ux fields

(c) NC Ц- fields (d) PBC Uy fields

Fig 6 Photograph of Moire interference lines

- PBC calculation PBC calculation

- NC calculation NC calculation
■ PBC experiment L""^ej -—■--- PBC experiment
- N C experiment — ■ — NC experiment

S o

-3
-12 -8 -4 0 20
15
y/mm X/mm

(a) (a)

3 r - PBC calculation
- PBC calculation
- NC calculation
- NC calculation
- PBC experiment
- PBC experiment
- NC experiment
- NC experiment

S o ■i - e „ . ^ 4 l ! ^ > * *
S 0

-3
-12 -8 10 15 20
y/mm X/mm

(b) (b)
PBC calculation
- PBC calculation
NC calculation
- NC calculation
--■■--- PBC experiment
- PBC experiment — ■ — NC experiment
- NC experiment
P-,
£ 0

-12 -8 -4 0 10 15 20
Y/mm X/mm

(c) (c)
Fig. 7 Stress distribution along line bb Fig. 8 Stress distribution along line aa
 XU Qianjun (%"f~ Щ-) et al: Thermal Stress Relaxation of N onhomogeneous Coatings
resistance, oxidization resistance, and thermal
resistance, since these tend to increase the ceramic
content near the coating surface.
(2) The FEM results are in good agreement
with experimental results obtained using moire
interference.
References
1 Delale F, Erdongan F . T h e crack problem for a
n onhomogeneous plane. J Appl Mech, 1983, 50: 609- 614
2 Delale F , Erdogan F . On the mechanical modeling of the
interfacial region in bonded half-planes. J Apple Mech,
1988, 55: 317-324
3 Noda N, Jin Z H. Thermal stress intensity factors for a
crack in a strip of a functionally gradient material. Int J
Solids Structures, 1 9 9 3 , 3 0 : 1039-1056
4 Noda N, Jin Z H. Transient thermal stress intensity factors
for a crack in a semr infinite plate of a functionally gradient
material. Int J Solids Structures, 1994, 31: 203 218
5 Shen Lianxi, Yu Shouwen. An asymptotic method for
analyzing the stress in a functionally gradient material layer
on a surface of a structural component. Acta Mechanica
Solida Sinica, to appear
6 ЗШЖ, i f f » , ШШХ, Щ* м ^ / ш Ж Ш Й Ш *
M№i&ÏÏ^ffl&. féffilfc^íR, 1993, 21: 406411
Zhang Lianmeng, Tang Xinfeng, Chen Tangyi, et al.
(continued from page 1340)
3.7 x 10 lu Bq, h as been designed and const meted
successfully by ШЕТ of Tsinghua University. The
experimental measurement results indicate as follows.
(1) The inspection characteristics of the Co
container scanner are similar to those of the
accelerator scanner.
(2) The penetration ability of the Co container
scanner (240 mm steel) is much better than that of
an X_ray machine scanner ( < 100 mm steel).
(3) The price of a Co container scanner is
much cheaper and its architectural area is much
smaller.
(4) The Co container scanner is easy to operate
and maintain. Also, it is very stable and reliable.
(5) T he radiation safety and the reliability of the
Co container scanner are good.
Because the Co scanners have good inspection
characteristics and other valuable features, they are
suitable for wide application. This kind of scanner
1357
Design and fabrication of Mg()/Ni functionally gradient
materials. Journal of the Chinese Ceramic Society, 1993,
21: 406 411
7 штщ, зшж, жтт. жъмояшяш^пт
тмяттш^т&. шш&^ш, 1994, 22: 44^
49
Т ang X infeng, Zhan g L iaran eng, Yu an Ru nzhan g.
Thermal stress relaxation design and fabrication of PSZ/ Mo
fu nc t ion ally grad ien t m at er ials. Jou rnal of t he C hin es e
Ceramic Society, 1994, 22: 4 4 49
8 Lannutti J J. Functionally gradient materials: properties,
potential and design guidelines. Compos Mater, 1994, 4:
81-94
Ф . Л Ш 5 Ж , 1995, 17 ( 2 ) : 7-13
Yu Shouw en, Xu Q ianjun. Edge effect stresses in
multilayer film within micromechanieal electronic system. J
Mechanical Strength, 1995, 17 ( 2 ) : 7-13
10 Kang Yilan. FB11 Report. No 04, 1994, Wuppertal
Univ, Wuppertal, F R Germany
11 SL—M, W^U, Laermann K H . # Ж ^ # * Ш Ш Ш
Л ^ ^ Л , 1995, 16: 140-146
Kang Yilan, Jia Youquan, Laermann K H. Experimental
analysis for edge stress and cracking failure of bimaterial
beam. Acta Mechanica Solida Sinica, 1995, 16: 140 146
could be used at customs of boundary, seaports,
airports, and railway stations, etc. .
References
1 B o u B s e t J F , BlisA, Lilot A P , et al. T h e Roissy- Charles
- de- Gaulle SYCOSCAN: a reality. In: Proceedings of the
Contraband and Cargo Inspection Technology International
Symposium. Washington D C, October 28-30, 1992
2 %шщ1 шшшмшмжтттт. IHMÍ«, 1995,
8 (1): 16
An Jigan g. Res ear ch an d con st ru et ion o f the co nt ain er
radiation scanner. Isotopes, 1995, 8 ( 1 ) : 16
S i l S I . Ф И ^ З Д , 93 1 0 2 7 2 8 . 4, 1993-3-18
An Jigang, Wu Haifeng. Device of gas ionization array
detectors for high energy X or Y- rays radiography. Chinese
Patent, 93 1 0 2 7 2 8 . 4, 1993-03-18
4 An Jigang, Wu Haifeng. Gas Ionization Array Detectors
For Radiography. United States Patent, 5 796 110,
1998-08-18