High-Temperature Solid Particle Erosion of Environmental and Thermal Barrier Coatings

Solid particle erosion (SPE) is a common phenomenon observed in gas turbine engines. Particles entrained in the gas flow impact engine hardware, resulting in micro-scale damage that leads to deleterious effects such as material removal. For protective coatings, damage due to SPE is a key concern, since it can negatively affect the durability of the coating and subsequently the life of the underlying component. In this work, the high-temperature SPE behavior of two state-of-the-art environmental barrier coatings (EBCs) deposited via air plasma spray (APS) is investigated using alumina erodent to understand the effect of particle kinetic energy, impingement angle, and temperature. The SPE behavior of the EBCs is also compared to APS and electron beam–physical vapor deposition (EB-PVD) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to elucidate similarities and differences in the erosion response. The EBCs were more susceptible to SPE than the EB-PVD TBC but had greater SPE resistance compared to the APS TBC. Coating microstructure and porosity were shown to have a strong influence on the observed behavior.