Plasma sprayed Thermal Barrier Coating systems (TBCs) are commonly used for thermal protection of components in modern gas turbine application such as power generation, marine and aero engines. The material that is most commonly used in these applications is Yttria Stabilized Zirconia (YSZ) because of this ceramic’s favourable properties, such as low thermal conductivity, phase stability to high temperature, and good erosion resistance. The coating microstructures in YSZ coatings are highly heterogeneous, consisting of defects such as pores and cracks of different sizes which determine the coating’s final thermal and mechanical properties, and the service lives of the coatings. Determination of quantitative microstructure–property correlations is of great interest as experimental procedures are time consuming and expensive.

This objective of this thesis work was to investigate the relationships between coating microstructure and thermal-mechanical properties of TBCs, and to utilise these relationships to design an optimised microstructure to be used for next generation TBCs. Simulation technique was used to achieve this goal. Important microstructural parameters influencing the performance of TBCs were identified and coatings with the identified microstructural parameters were designed, modelled and experimentally verified. TBCs comprising of large globular pores with connected cracks inherited within the coating microstructure were shown to have significantly enhanced performance. Low thermal conductivity, low Young‘s modulus and high lifetime were exhibited by these coatings. The modelling approach described in this work can be used as a powerful tool to design new coatings as well as to achieve optimised microstructures.

Atmospheric plasma sprayed (APS) thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) are commonly used for thermal protection of components in modern gas turbine application such as power generation, marine and aero engines. TBC is a duplex material system consisting of an insulating ceramic topcoat layer and an intermetallic bondcoat layer. TBC microstructures are highly heterogeneous, consisting of defects such as pores and cracks of different sizes which determine the coating's final thermal and mechanical properties, and the service lives of the coatings. Failure in APS TBCs is mainly associated with the thermo-mechanical stresses developing due to the thermally grown oxide (TGO) layer growth at the topcoat-bondcoat interface and thermal expansion mismatch during thermal cycling. The interface roughness has been shown to play a major role in the development of these induced stresses and lifetime of TBCs.The objective of this thesis work was two-fold for one purpose: to design an optimised TBC to be used for next generation gas turbines. The first objective was to investigate the relationships between coating microstructure and thermal-mechanical properties of topcoats, and to utilise these relationships to design an optimised morphology of the topcoat microstructure. The second objective was to investigate the relationships between topcoat-bondcoat interface roughness, TGO growth and lifetime of TBCs, and to utilise these relationships to design an optimal interface. Simulation technique was used to achieve these objectives. Important microstructural parameters influencing the performance of topcoats were identified and coatings with the feasible identified microstructural parameters were designed, modelled and experimentally verified. It was shown that large globular pores with connected cracks inherited within the topcoat microstructure significantly enhanced TBC performance. Real topcoat-bondcoat interface topographies were used to calculate the induced stresses and a diffusion based TGO growth model was developed to assess the lifetime. The modelling results were compared with existing theories published in previous works and experiments. It was shown that the modelling approach developed in this work could be used as a powerful tool to design new coatings and interfaces as well as to achieve high performance optimised morphologies.