Ceramic Thermal Barrier Coatings (TBCs) on superalloy components are being used successfully in land-based gas turbine and aircraft engines. These coatings are generally made by either air plasma spraying (APS) or electron beam physical vapour deposition (EB-PVD). In general, EB-PVD TBCs have superior durability due to the columnar structure, but they are very expensive compared to APS TBCs. EB...

n air plasma spray process has been used to deposit tri-layer environmental barrier coatings consisting of a silicon bond coat, a mullite interiffusion barrier, and a Yb2SiO5 top coat on SiC substrates. Solidified droplets in as-deposited Yb2SiO5 and mullite layers were discovered to be epleted in silicon. This led to the formation of an Yb2SiO5 + Yb2O3 two-phase top coat and 2:1 mullite (2Al2O...

Three-dimensional, transient simulations of the plasma flow inside different plasma spray torches have been performed using a local thermodynamic equilibrium model solved by a multiscale finite element method. The model describes the dynamics of the arc without any further assumption on the reattachment process except for the use of an artificially high electrical conductivity near the electrod...

Multi-electrode plasma torches are becoming increasingly popular in the thermal spray community due to their good stability and high power plasma jet even when operated with inert gases. Currently the models in use feature either three cathodes and a single anode or three individual anodes connecting to a single cathode. The motivation for development of these plasma torches is based on the inh...

This work presents a novel coating technique to manufacture ceramic superhydrophobic coatings rapidly and economically. A rare earth oxide (REO) was selected as the coating material due to its hydrophobic nature, chemical inertness, high temperature stability, and good mechanical properties, and deposited on stainless steel substrates by solution precursor plasma spray (SPPS). The effects of va...

Propagation of intense laser beams is crucial for inertial confinement fusion, which requires precise beam control to achieve the compression and heating necessary to ignite the fusion reaction. The National Ignition Facility (NIF), where fusion will be attempted, is now under construction. Control of intense beam propagation may be ruined by laser beam self-focusing. We have identified the max...

BACKGROUND Previous studies stating a high prevalence of occupational acute pesticide poisoning in developing countries have mainly relied on measurements of the rather non-specific self-reported acute pesticide poisoning symptoms. Only a few studies have measured the biomarker plasma cholinesterase (PchE) activity, in addition to the symptoms, when assessing occupational acute pesticide poison...

Bioceramics such as hydroxyapatite (HAP) have been conventionally deposited by plasma spray technique. However, due to the inherent high temperature in the plasma, deleterious effects such as evaporation, phase alteration, residual stress, debonding, and gas release etc., commonly occur in these coatings. This paper presents a novel approach to deposit bioceramic coatings at temperatures well b...

  Spreading and coating of nano and micro droplets on solid surfaces is important in a wide variety of applications including plasma spray coating, ink jet printing, DNA synthesis and etc. In spraying processes, most of droplets collide obliquely to the surface. The purpose of this article is to study the distribution of nano and micro droplets spreading when droplets impact at an oblique a...