Evaluation of Thermal Barrier Coating in Low Cycle Fatigue Life for Exhaust Manifold

This paper presents low cycle fatigue (LCF) life prediction of a coated and uncoated exhaust manifolds. First Solidworks software was used to model the exhaust manifolds. A thermal barrier coating system was applied on the tubes c of the exhaust manifolds, consists of two-layer systems: a ceramic top coat (TC), made of yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ), ZrO2-8%Y2O3 and also a metallic bond coat (BC), made of NiCrAlY. The temperature-dependent of material parameters was considered in order to increase the accuracy of LCF life results. Then Ansys Workbench software was used to determine stress and fatigue life based on Morrow and Smith-Watson-Topper (SWT) approaches. Thermal fatigue failure of the engine components easily happens due to excessive temperature gradient and thermal stress. Modern exhaust systems must withstand severe cyclic mechanical and thermal loads throughout the whole life cycle. The results of finite element analysis (FEA) showed that the thermal barrier coating system reduces the temperature about 29°C because of its lower thermal conductivity. As a result, the exhaust manifolds tolerates lower temperature and fatigue life will increase. The results of thermo-mechanical analysis indicated that the stress in the coated exhaust manifolds decreased approximately 25 MPa for the sake of depletion of temperature gradient which can lead to higher fatigue lifetime. The results of LCF proved that the number of cycles of failure for coated exhaust manifold is approximately in the order 2-fold longer, than the results obtained from the uncoated exhaust manifolds.