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Advanced thermal barrier coating materials are necessary to improve the efficiency of next-generation gas turbine engines. As such, different TBC chemistries must be developed with enhanced temperature stability above that of 7YSZ (~1200°C) while maintaining thermal and mechanical reliability. The present study investigates the effect of rare-earth content on the mechanical properties of ZrO 2 TBCs. Various cubic compositions in the ZrO-GdO 1.5 system were investigated in the form of monolithic pellets and coatings with stoichiometric GZO

New thermal barrier coating (TBC) materials and microstructures are under development to increase gas turbine operating temperatures beyond the ~1200°C threshold of standard 7 wt. % yttria stabilized zirconia (7YSZ). To deposit these advanced coatings, a new thermal spray deposition technique is used: Plasma Spray -Physical Vapor Deposition (PS-PVD). PS-PVD is capable of depositing from the vapor phase to yield strain tolerant columnar microstructures similar to Electron Beam -Physical Vapor Deposition (EB-PVD) or, alternatively, the traditional splat-like lamellar microstructure common to Air Plasma Spray (APS). This study investigates the process-structure relationships and resulting erosion response for plasma gas flow, amperage, and feed rate. It was found that in the selected design space, porosity and surface roughness vary © 2016. This manuscript version is made available under the Elsevier user license http://www.elsevier.com/open-access/userlicense/1.0/ from ~12-26% and ~5-10 µm, respectively. Erosion behavior is discussed and the mechanism is identified to be heavily dependent upon the intercolumnar spacing. The lowest erosion rates are similar to EB-PVD, while the highest erosion rates were closer to APS. This is attributed to the hybrid nature of the PS-PVD process and provides an opportunity to tailor coatings with a wide range of properties, and thus performance.

Research on advanced thermal barrier coating (TBC) materials capable of operating beyond 1200°C has primarily focused on the rare earth zirconate pyrochlores, particularly gadolinium zirconate (Gd 2 Zr 2 O 7 -GZO). The drawback of this material is a significant reduction in durability due to a low fracture toughness. This study investigates utilization of a thermodynamically compatible gadolinia alumina perovskite (GdAlO 3 -GAP) toughening phase to improve the durability of GZO. Dense pellets were fabricated to assess the material properties with minimal microstructural influence. Thermal stability, elastic modulus, hardness, indentation fracture resistance and erosion durability were evaluated for GZO, GAP, and composite pellets containing 10, 30, and 50 wt.% GAP. It was demonstrated that GAP and GZO are thermodynamically compatible through 1600°C and thus capable of operating well beyond the limits of traditional 7 wt.% yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ). Grain sizes are maintained due to a lack of diffusion, and thus microstructural stability is enhanced. The GAP fracture toughness was shown to be over 2X that of GZO while exhibiting a lower elastic modulus and similar hardness. The 50:50 GZO-GAP composite exhibited a 63% reduction in the absolute erosion rate, demonstrating the immense toughening capabilities of this system. The implications for composite TBCs utilizing this system are discussed, along with future work. K E Y W O R D Saluminates, composites, durability, gadolinium zirconate, thermal barrier coatings