Materialism Podcast Ep 48: Thermal Barrier Coatings

Did you know turbine blades operate in environments above their melting temperature? The secret is a barrier, no thicker than your fingernail, that insulates, protects, and prevents the nickel superalloy blade from melting. In this episode, we discuss the materials science that makes low thermal conductivity, high compliance thermal barrier coatings possible. Towards that end, we peer into what the future might hold as we push operating temperatures higher.
Articles Discussed:
- 2019, Smil, Gas Turbines Have Become by Far the Best Choice for Add-on Generating Power They offer instant-on power that's compact, mobile, quiet, economical, durable, and matchlessly efficient, IEEE Spectrum [[LINK](spectrum.ieee.org/gas-turbine...)]
- 2010, Gas Turbines breaking the 60% efficiency barrier, Power Engineering International [[LINK](www.powerengineeringint.com/c...)]
- 2005, Clarke & Phillpot, Thermal barrier coating materials, Materials Today [[LINK](www.realclearenergy.org/artic...)]
- 2003, Clarke & Levi, Materials Design for the Next Generation Thermal Barrier Coatings, Annual Reviews of Materials Research [[LINK](doi.org/10.1146/annurev.matsc...)] This article will be made available for free for 6 months!
This episode is sponsored [Matmatch](matmatch.com/). Check out how they can help you find the perfect material for your next engineering project! This episode is also sponsored by [Materials Today](www.materialstoday.com/), an Elsevier community dedicated to the creation and sharing of materials science knowledge and experience through their peer-reviewed journals, academic conferences, educational webinars, and more. This episode is also sponsored by [Correlated Solutions](www.correlatedsolutions.com/) for sponsoring this episode.
Thanks to Kolobyte and Alphabot for letting us use their music in the show!
If you have questions or feedback please send us emails at [e-mail] or connect with us on social media: [Instagram]( materialism..., [Twitter]( / materialismpod .
Materialism Team: Taylor Sparks (co-host, co-creator), Andrew Falkowski (co-host, co-creator), Jared Duffy (production, marketing, and editing), Ramsey Issa (editing assistance).
Keywords: thermal barrier coatings, turbines, superalloys, ceramics, aviation, jet engines

[@irogbelegideon7408]

thank you guys for materialism podcast, this is the best lesson so far on TBCs

[@TaylorSparks]

This was one of my fav episodes to make!

[@SuperFrostyn]

Great episode! I'm preparing for an interview with the launchers division at ESA and I think brushing up on concepts such as thermal conductivity and thermal expansion will be beneficial!

[@TaylorSparks]

This was probably my favorite episode

[@whoareyou9512]

This podcast helped me with my final master's thesis! Thanks for your job!
Greetings from Barcelona, Spain!

[@TaylorSparks]

Woohoo! Buena suerte con la thesis!

[@whoareyou9512]

@@TaylorSparks Muchas gracias!

[@iZenZation]

Very cool, thanks!

[@TaylorSparks]

Thanks. This episode is a really good one

[@zach7147]

Tungsten coatings too conducive and non porous for the job?

[@TaylorSparks]

Conductivity is too high, they might interact with alloy as well, I'd have to check the past diagram.

[@zach7147]

It seems like you could get sufficiently thick coating from CVD of a-alumina? Or tweak the PVD to avoid beta/gamma alumina. But I’m sure YSZ is industry standard for a reason and there’s way more going on as far as thermal expansion and material compatibility and general phase structure.