Characterization of high-temperature mechanical properties of plasma-cladded coatings with thermo-mechanical coupling

High temperature mechanical properties was detected here to study the failure and strengthening mechanism of the coating-substrate (cobalt-based coatings were fabricated on FV520B substrate) integral structure with thermo-mechanical coupling effects. Microstructure, phase composition, element distribution of the coatings was characterized by optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscope (TEM), electron back scattering diffraction (EBSD), X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron probe microanalysis (EPMA) and energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDS). Results elucidate that fracture occurs in the coating for Co50 coating-substrate structure from 300 °C to 700 °C, but failure position transfer to substrate from coating at elevated temperatures with the addition of niobium and cerium oxide. Throughout, there is no crack originated from the interface. Fracture mechanism: the dislocation pile-up causes great stress concentration in the grain boundary, which results in the nucleation of the crack, and then the crack extends along the hard brittle Fe-Cr phase until the material fails. HRTEM shows the high density dislocation and the severe lattice distortion was formed during tensile deformation. On the macro level, the fracture tends to occur in the coarse dendrites region.