To ensure the thermal stability of aero-engine blades under high temperature and harsh service environments, it is necessary to quickly and accurately evaluate the thickness of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). In this work, it was proposed to use the terahertz nondestructive testing (NDT) technique combined with the hybrid machine learning algorithm to measure the thickness of TBCs. The finite difference time-domain (FDTD) method was used to model the optical propagation characteristics of TBC samples with different thicknesses (101–300 μm) in the frequency band. To make the terahertz time-domain signal obtained simulation more realistic, uniform white noise was added to the simulation data and wavelet denoising was conducted to mimic the real testing environment. Principal components analysis (PCA) algorithm and whale optimization algorithm (WOA) combined with an optimized Elman neural network algorithm was employed to set up the hybrid machine learning model. Finally, the hybrid thickness regression prediction model shows low error, high accuracy, and an exceptional coefficient of determination R² of 0.999. It was demonstrated that the proposed hybrid algorithm could meet the thickness evaluation requirements. Meanwhile, a novel, efficient, safe, and accurate terahertz nondestructive testing method has shown great potential in the evaluation of structural integrity of thermal barrier coatings in the near future.

Grit blasting as a pretreatment process for the substrate surface before thermal spraying is of great importance for assuring the service performance of thermal spraying coatings. In this work, a novel hybrid artificial neural network (ANN) was presented to optimize the grit blasting process to improve the structural properties and corrosion resistance performance of thermal spraying coatings. Different grit blasting process parameters were combined to pretreat the substrate surface, and the corresponding surface roughness, interface adhesion strength and corrosion resistance performance were obtained. Hence, a backpropagation (BP) neural network model optimized by the genetic algorithm (GA) was presented to address the poor regression roughness and accuracy of the traditional fitting models; the grit blasting processing parameters were utilized as the inputs for the GA–BP model; the structural properties and the corrosion resistance performance were used as the outputs. The correlation coefficient R reached and exceeded 0.90, and three error values were less than 1.75 on the prediction of the service performance of random samples. All these indicators demonstrated convincingly that the obtained hybrid artificial neural network models possessed good prediction performance, and this innovative and time-saving grit blasting process optimization approach could be potentially employed to improve the comprehensive service performance of thermal spraying coatings.

Effective control of the micro- and nanostructure of thermal barrier coatings is essential to enhance the thermal radiation performance of the coating, which helps to determine the remaining service life of the coating. This paper proposed a method to measure the radiation properties of thermal barrier coatings by terahertz nondestructive testing technique, using APS-prepared thermal barrier coatings as the object of study. Radiative properties were a comprehensive set of properties characterized by the diffuse reflectance, transmittance, and absorptance of the thermal barrier coating. The coating data in actual service were obtained by scanning electron microscopy and metallographic experiments, and the data were used as the simulation model critical value. The terahertz time-domain simulation data of coatings with different microstructural features were obtained using the finite-different time-domain (FDTD) method. In simulating the real test signals, white noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of 20 dB was added, and fast Fourier transform (FFT), short-time Fourier transform (STFT), and wavelet transform (WT) were used to reduce the noise and compare their noise reduction effects. Different machine learning methods were used to build the model, including support vector machine algorithm (SVM) and k-nearest neighbor algorithm (KNN). The principal component algorithm (PCA) was used to reduce the dimensionality of terahertz time-domain data, and the SVM algorithm and KNN algorithm were optimized using the particle swarm optimization algorithm (PSO) and the ant colony optimization algorithm (ACO), respectively, to improve the robustness of the system. The K-fold cross-validation method was used to construct the model to improve the adaptability of the model. It could be clearly seen that the novel hybrid PCA-ACO-SVM model had superior prediction performance. Finally, this work proposed a novel, convenient, nondestructive, online, safe and highly accurate method for measuring the radiation performance of thermal barrier coatings, which could be used for the judgment of the service life of thermal barrier coatings.

Accurately characterizing the internal porosity rate of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) was essential for prolonging their service life. This work concentrated on atmospheric plasma spray (APS)-prepared TBCs and proposed the utilization of terahertz non-destructive detection technology to evaluate their internal porosity rate. The internal porosity rates were ascertained through a metallographic analysis and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), followed by the reconstruction of the TBC model using a four-parameter method. Terahertz time-domain simulation data corresponding to various porosity rates were generated employing the time-domain finite difference method. In simulating actual test signals, white noise with a signal-to-noise ratio of 10 dB was introduced, and various wavelet transforms were utilized for denoising purposes. The effectiveness of different signal processing techniques in mitigating noise was compared to extract key features associated with porosity. To address dimensionality challenges and further enhance model performance, kernel principal component analysis (kPCA) was employed for data processing. To tackle issues related to limited sample sizes, this work proposed to use the Siamese neural network (SNN) and generative adversarial network (GAN) algorithms to solve this challenge in order to improve the generalization ability and detection accuracy of the model. The efficacy of the constructed model was assessed using multiple evaluation metrics; the results indicate that the novel hybrid WT-kPCA-GAN model achieves a prediction accuracy exceeding 0.9 while demonstrating lower error rates and superior predictive performance overall. Ultimately, this work presented an innovative, convenient, non-destructive online approach that was safe and highly precise for measuring the porosity rate of TBCs, particularly in scenarios involving small sample sizes facilitating assessments regarding their service life.

With the development of high-efficiency gas turbine engines and increasing inlet temperatures, the performance of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) for hot-section components has been more severely challenged. The doping of multi-element rare earth elements significantly improves the thermodynamic properties and chemical compatibility of thermal barrier coatings so that the application performance of coatings in high-temperature environments is enhanced considerably. In this work, the doped coatings prepared by REYSZ (RE = La, Sm, Nd) were investigated and characterized in terms of crystal structure, elastic properties, and thermal–mechanical properties based on the first-principles approach, combined with various empirical and semi-empirical formulations, and a predictive model for resistance to CMAS corrosion based on machine learning approaches. The results showed that the tetragonal phase REYSZ material was mechanically stable, had a large strain damage tolerance, and was not easy to fracture under applied loads and thermal shocks. In terms of CMAS corrosion resistance, the NdYSZ interfacial model had a lower surface energy (3.130 J/m²) and Griffith fracture energy (6.934 J/m²) compared with the conventional YSZ model, and Nd₂O₃ had the potential to improve the CMAS corrosion resistance of zirconia-based material for thermal barrier coatings. By evaluating the machine learning prediction models, the regression coefficients of the two algorithms were 0.9627 and 0.9740, and both these two prediction models showed high prediction accuracy and strong robustness. Ultimately, this work presented a novel mechanism–data hybrid method, which would facilitate the efficient development of TBC new materials for anti-CMAS corrosion.