Sintering and microstructure evolution in columnar thermal barrier coatings

Sintering of thermal barrier coatings changes their key properties, such as thermal conductivity and thermal shock resistance, thus adversely impacting their reliability. We present a novel modeling approach to study the evolution of coating structure during sintering. We model the sintering of individual columns using a thermodynamic principle, and incorporate the center-to-center approach rates for the columns calculated using this principle in a larger scale discrete dynamics model for the evolution of a large number of columns. Surface energies, grain boundary energies and strain energies associated with the deformation of the columns are all included in this framework, while sintering is assumed to occur by the concerted action of surface and grain boundary diffusion. Two sets of initial conditions corresponding to different extents of pre-sintering among neighboring columns are considered. When the extent of pre-sintering is small, we observe that small clusters containing 5–20 columns are formed. In contrast, where a larger amount of pre-sintering exists, we observe, especially at large column densities, that clusters containing 50–100 columns separated by large inter-cluster pores/channels that appear to organize themselves into a network are formed. These observations are in good agreement with recently published experimental observations. We also explain how these results can explain the development of a “mud-crack”-like pattern.