Current Status of Fundamentals and Applications of Thermal Barrier Coatings

Dear colleagues,

We would like to invite you to submit your research work to our Special Issue "Current Status of Fundamentals and Applications of Thermal Barrier Coatings." As an integral part of turbine design, thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) have been applied to hot section components of combustors, high-pressure turbine (HPT) blades, and HPT nozzles for decades in both propulsion and power generation engines. The insulating capability of TBCs enables higher operating temperatures, reduces the amount of cooling air, therefore, improving efficiency, reducing emissions, and increasing thrust. Although our understanding of mechanisms governing TBC performance has improved significantly over the past decades, current engine design primarily relies on the life-extension benefits of TBCs; it does not fully exploit the significant performance improvements that TBCs can provide. The thermal barrier coating prime reliance and advances have long been hindered by TBC failure via various mechanisms. 

This Special Issue will present the latest design and development of thermal barrier coatings (APS-TBCs, EB-PVD TBC, and SPS-TBCs) applied to propulsion and power generation engines through original research papers and review articles from leading scientists and engineers across the world.

In particular, the topics of interest include but not limited to the following:

• Failure mechanisms and damage mechanics (experiments, numerical, and analytical models);
• FOD and erosion mechanisms (experiments, numerical, elastodynamics formulae, cutting-deformation-based models, Monte Carlo);
• Hot corrosion, water vapor, and mitigation approaches of CMAS;
• Topcoat sintering (testing and multi-scale models) and bond coat /TGO rumpling (testing and models);
• Lower thermal conductivity of topcoat (new materials, DFT combined phonon theory, mechanics and physics-based models; microscale defect models);
• New bond coats towards increasing TBC life;
• Interface and topcoat toughness mechanisms and models;
• Processing, performance, and economics of TBCs deposition;
• Residual stress models and the effect of thermal gradient on life and failure behavior (experiments and models);
• Applications of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning combining big data in TBC design and development.

Dr. Kuiying Chen
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Coatings is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.