With the rising demands of industry to increase the working temperature of gas turbine blades and internal combustion engines, thermal barrier coatings (TBC) were found to be an effective way to further enhance the lifetime of aero components through the improvement of mechanical properties and oxidation-resistance. Thus, this paper aims to review coating technologies with special emphasis on plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings (PS), and those produced by physical vapor deposition (PVD) and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods. Each technology was assessed in terms of its effectiveness to enhance the mechanical response and oxidation resistance of nickel-based parts working at high temperature. The effect of coating technology on mechanical strength, hardness, fatigue and creep of nickel alloys was discussed to reveal the potential candidates for future applications in aggressive environments.

In this paper, mechanical properties of the as-received and aluminide layer coated MAR 247 nickel based superalloy were examined through creep and fatigue tests. The aluminide layer of 20 µm was obtained through the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process in the hydrogen protective atmosphere for 8 h at the temperature of 1040 °C and internal pressure of 150 mbar. A microstructure of the layer was characterized using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS). It was found that aluminide coating improve the high temperature fatigue performance of MAR247 nickel based superalloy at 900 °C significantly. The coated MAR 247 nickel based superalloy was characterized by the stress amplitude response ranging from 350 MPa to 520 MPa, which is twice as large as that for the uncoated alloy.

In this paper, aluminide coatings of various thicknesses and microstructural uniformity obtained using chemical vapor deposition (CVD) were studied in detail. The optimized CVD process parameters of 1040 °C for 12 h in a protective hydrogen atmosphere enabled the production of high density and porosity-free aluminide coatings. These coatings were characterized by beneficial mechanical features including thermal stability, wear resistance and good adhesion strength to MAR 247 nickel superalloy substrate. The microstructure of the coating was characterized through scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. Mechanical properties and wear resistance of aluminide coatings were examined using microhardness, scratch test and standardized wear tests, respectively. Intermetallic phases from the Ni-Al system at specific thicknesses (20–30 µm), and the chemical and phase composition were successfully evaluated at optimized CVD process parameters. The optimization of the CVD process was verified to offer high performance coating properties including improved heat, adhesion and abrasion resistance.

In this paper, a novel method for high temperature fatigue strength assessment of nickel superalloy turbine blades after operation at different times (303 and 473 h) was presented. The studies included destructive testing (fatigue testing at temperature 950 °C under cyclic bending load), non-destructive testing (Fluorescent Penetrant Inspection and Eddy Current method), and finite element modelling. High temperature fatigue tests were performed within load range from 5200 to 6600 N using a special self-designed blade grip attached to the conventional testing machine. The experimental results were compared with the finite element model generated from the ANSYS software. It was found that failure of turbine blades occurred in the area with the highest stress concertation, which was accurately predicted by the finite element (FE) model.

In this paper, the fatigue performance of the aluminide layer-coated and as-received MAR 247 nickel superalloy with three different initial microstructures (fine grain, coarse grain and column-structured grain) was monitored using nondestructive, eddy current methods. The aluminide layers of 20 and 40 µm were obtained through the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process in the hydrogen protective atmosphere for 8 and 12 h at the temperature of 1040 °C and internal pressure of 150 mbar. A microstructure of MAR 247 nickel superalloy and the coating were characterized using light optical microscopy (LOM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). It was found that fatigue performance was mainly driven by the initial microstructure of MAR 247 nickel superalloy and the thickness of the aluminide layer. Furthermore, the elaborated methodology allowed in situ eddy current measurements that enabled us to localize the area with potential crack initiation and its propagation during 60,000 loading cycles.

The article presents results of the investigation of the quantitative evaluation of the degree of damage, described by the measure of accumulated plastic strain obtained in a static tensile test,...