GOALI: Engineering Coating Microstructure Through Advanced Plasma Spray Processing: Fuel Cell and Thermal Barrier Applications

这项研究专注于开发增强的等离子喷涂处理能力，使其能够满足两个重要领域的先进材料和制造要求：新兴的燃料电池行业和用于发动机和动力应用的先进热障涂层(TBC)。这项研究旨在扩大更好地理解对这些应用至关重要的过程-结构-性能关系所需的科学基础，以及利用这些知识开发更直接地控制确定所产生的微观结构的过程物理的先进的实时控制系统。其好处将是既扩大了设计先进涂层系统的能力，又提高了制造能力。我们的研究方法旨在弥合广泛的实验研究参数设计和更基础的过程物理研究之间的差距，这些过程物理研究涉及高度“理想化”的条件，如光滑界面上的单片。等离子喷涂是一种高通量、经济、低环境影响的工艺，可用于定制涂层微结构以满足特定的性能要求。然而，燃料电池和先进的TBC应用对提高能源效率和减少环境影响非常重要，需要能够设计涂层结构并满足制造要求(产量和变化水平)，这些要求超出了目前的等离子喷涂能力。我们关注这两个应用不仅是因为它们的重要性，而且因为它们使用相同的陶瓷材料(Yitria稳定的氧化锆，YSZ)，但具有显著不同的微观结构要求。我们相信，通过我们的开发努力建立在对过程-结构关系的更深入了解的基础上，我们将开发出可推广和广泛适用的控制系统。这项研究将由一个由具有材料、热流体、控制、制造和应用领域专业知识的学术和行业研究人员组成的跨学科团队进行。为了更好地理解真实工艺条件下的复杂工艺结构问题，我们将采取建模-实验相结合的方法。研究领域包括：a)更全面地了解决定关键涂层特征的工艺-结构关系的基本物理，b)开发无量纲化模型，将工艺物理和可测量的工艺特性与诸如涂层厚度和沉积速率等生产目标联系起来，c)根据其对涂层结构和控制要求的影响来调查工艺的分布特性，以及d)将这些要素明确地纳入先进控制系统的体系结构中。根据我们的行业合作伙伴(Goali合作伙伴：西门子-西屋和Engelhard Surface Technologies)的专业知识，我们将评估这些满足燃料电池和TBC要求的新能力。在我们过去9年的记录基础上(38名本科生研究人员中50%来自代表性不足的群体)，我们打算继续积极地让代表性不足的群体和本科生参与我们的研究。

This research is focused on developing enhanced plasma spray processing capabilities that will enable meeting the advanced materials and manufacturing requirements in two important areas: the emerging fuel-cell industry and advanced thermal barrier coatings (TBC) for engine and power applications. The research is directed at both expanding the science base needed to better understand the process-structure-property relationships critical for these applications, as well as utilizing this knowledge to develop an advanced real-time control system that more directly controls the process physics that determines the resulting microstructure. The benefit will be both in expanding the ability to engineer advanced coating systems as well as improving manufacturing capabilities. Our research approach is designed to bridge the gap between extensive parametric design of experiments studies and more fundamental studies of the process physics involving highly "idealized" conditions, such as single splats on smooth interfaces. Plasma spray is a high-throughput, economical, low environmental impact process that can be used to custom engineer coating microstructure to meet specific performance requirements. However, fuel-cell and advanced TBC applications, important to improving energy efficiency and reducing environmental impact, require the ability to engineer coating structure and meet manufacturing requirements (yield and variation levels) that are beyond today's current plasma spray capabilities. We focus on these two applications not only because of their importance, but because they involve the same ceramic material (yitria stablized zirconia, YSZ) but with significantly different microstructural requirements. We believe that by basing our development effort on a deeper knowledge of the process-structure relations, we will develop a control system that is generalizable and widely applicable. This research will be conducted by an interdisciplinary team of academic-industry researchers with expertise in materials, thermal-fluids, controls, manufacturing, and the application areas. We will take a combined modeling-experimental approach in order to better understand the complex process-structure issues under real processing conditions. Research areas include: a) developing a more complete understanding of the underlying physics that determines the process-structure relationships for critical coating features, b) developing non-dimensionalized models to relate the process physics and measurable process characteristics to production objectives such as coating thickness and deposition rate, c) investigating the distributed nature of the process in terms of its impact on coating structure and control requirements, and d) incorporating these elements explicitly into the architecture of an advanced control system. Guided by expertise from our industry co-PI's (GOALI Partners: Siemens-Westinghouse and Engelhard Surface Technologies), we will then evaluate these new capabilities in meeting the fuel-cell and TBC requirements. Building on our record over the past 9 years (50% of 38 undergraduate researchers were from underrepresented groups), we intend to continue actively involving underrepresented groups and undergraduate students in our research.