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.

AEI’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 types 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.