Computational Approach for Designing Plasma Sprayed Coatings: From Splat to Bulk Deposits

Splats are the building blocks of thermal spray coatings. The mechanical and thermal properties of the coatings are determined by the shapes and the arrangement of splats. In this study, the formation of aluminum oxide splats by plasma spraying was investigated using SIMDROP software. The plasma parameters were varied for obtaining different velocities and temperature resulting in different splat morphology. Three-dimensional coating structures were reconstructed with the simulated splat morphologies. In plane and the cross-sectional images of the coatings were taken as input for the OOF2 finite element program. OOF2 model accurately captured the effect of the microstructure on the thermal conductivity and the elastic moduli of the plasma sprayed aluminum oxide coatings. This study shows how computational approaches can be used from splat to bulk for better control on coating properties. The results from the computational studies have been validated by the experimental results.