ABSTRACT
The present article is devoted to quantifying the contribution of pores and cracks in the decrease of the effective thermal conductivity of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs). A finite-difference-based model is used for the computation of heat transfer through a porous structure. Each pixel of a binary picture describing the pore network is interpreted as a cell of integration of the heat conduction equation. A thermal gradient is applied and a large system of linear Equations is subsequently derived. Since it has a strong influence on the required CPU time, particular attention is given to the solving procedure.
The authors acknowledge the help of Ms. Lydie Lahoupe (LERMPS, Université de Technologie de Belfort-Montbéliard, France) for the sample preparation and Mr. Jean-Marc Dorvaux (ONERA, Materials Science Department, Chatillon, France) for his advice in improving the TS2C software. LERMPS is a member of Institut des Traitements de Surfaces de Franche-Comté (ITSFC, Surface Treatment Institute of Franche-Comté), France.
Notes
1 Saint-Gobain Coating Solutions, Avignon, France.
2 PHOENICS is a general-purpose CFD package developed by CHAM, Wimbledon, UK.