Numerical reconstruction of porous architecture for suspension plasma sprayed coatings

The porous architecture of coatings has a significant influence on the coating performances and thus should be properly designed for the intended applications. For simulating the coating properties, it is necessary to determine the numerical representation of the coating microstructure. In this study, YSZ coatings were manufactured by suspension plasma spray (SPS). Afterwards, the porosity and the pore size distribution of as-prepared coatings were investigated by the combination of three techniques, imaging analysis, X-ray transmission, and Ultra Small Angle X-ray Scattering (USAXS). A structural model for reconstructing the porous architecture of the SPS coating was subsequently computed according to the collected experimental results. Finally, the thermal property of the coating was simulated based on the structural model and were compared with the experimental results.