Person:

Shian, Samuel

The thermal conductivity of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) thermal barrier coatings increases with high-temperature aging. This common observation has been attributed to the densification of the coatings as porosity sinters out and pores and cracks spheroidize to minimize their surface energy. We show that the thermalconductivity of fully-dense 3 mol. % Y({2})O({3}) stabilized zirconia (3YSZ) also increases with high-temperature aging, indicating that densification and pore shape changes alone are not responsible for all the observed increase in thermalconductivity of coatings. Instead, there are also increases due to a combination of phase separation and grain growth. The increase in thermal conductivity can be described by a Larson–Miller parameter. It is also found that the increase in thermal conductivity with aging is greatest when measured at room temperature and decreases with increasing measurement temperature. Measured at 1000 °C, the thermal conductivity of zirconia is almost temperature independent and the changes in thermal conductivity with aging are less than 15%, even after aging for 50 h at 1400 °C.

Compositions in the ZrO2-Y2O3-Ta2O5 system are of interest as low thermal conductivity, fracture resistant oxides for the next generation thermal barrier coatings (TBC). Multiple phases occur in the system offering the opportunity to compare the thermal properties of single, two-phase, and three-phase materials. Despite rather large variations in compositions almost all the solid solution compounds had rather similar thermal conductivities and, furthermore, exhibited only relatively small variations with temperature up to 1000oC. These characteristics are attributed to the extensive mass disorder in all the compounds and, in turn, small interfacial Kapitza (thermal) resistances. More complicated behavior, associated with the transformation from the tetragonal to monoclinic phase, occurs on long-term annealing in air of some of the compositions. However, the phases in two of the compositional regions do not change with annealing in air and their thermal conductivities remain unchanged suggesting they may be suitable for further exploration as thermally stable TBC overcoats.