Endurable Thermal Barrier Coating

AEI was awarded a Phase II SBIR contract by the Department of Defense’s US Army Tank-automotive and Armaments Command for development of endurable thermal barrier coatings for diesel engine specific heat reduction.

The U. S. Army has a need for reliable and durable in-cylinder thermal barrier coatings (TBC) to reduce high power density diesel engine component structural temperatures and heat rejection.

coupon_test_rigAEI’s approach to advancing durability and insulating effectiveness of TBC’s is to use analysis, bench test screening and engine test verification. Analysis includes thermal-structural finite element modeling to estimate temperatures, stresses and insulating effectiveness along with test verification. Bench testing includes small-sized test coupons followed with full-sized component-like coupons to screen potential TBC systems. Engine test verification includes durability, performance and insulating effectiveness demonstrations.

Phase I program bench testing results identified TBC surface-coat systems that reduced radiant heat transfer up to 40 % and coating parameter optimization that improved durability by more than 300 %. Two tyPTNCAPpes of surface-coat systems identified included a plasma spray coating and a post-treatment washcoat. Bench test results demonstrated that radiant heat reflective coatings are desirable while radiant heat absorbing coatings are not desirable.