Fatigue Resistance Assessment of Slurry Coating Steel Substrate Compounds under Cyclic Loading

Slurry coatings have been used for the protection of gas turbine materials in power plants during the last years. These coatings can be applied by spaying, brushing or dipping. The main constituent elements are silicon, chromium, potassium, borium, carbon and zirconium. They are characterized by high hardness and very good resistance against corrosion, erosion, abrasive and adhesive wear. To guarantee the reliability of coated steam turbines components used in power plants, the lifetime assessment of the coatings and their failure prediction become very important. Microhardness, scratch, adhesion and pin-on-disk sliding tests are commonly used for rapid evaluation of the mechanical properties of these coatings [F. Loeffler: Thin Solid Films, Vol. 339 (1999), p. 181]. However, the above testing methods do not model the dynamic cyclic fatigue. In this paper we evaluate the fatigue resistance of slurry coatings working under cyclic loading conditions by the impact testing method. The coating failure mode and its extent were assessed by SEM observations and EDX analysis. From the experimental results it was concluded that the Si,Cr,O,B,C coatings deposited on P91 steel substrate showed an improved fatigue strength compared to that of Si,Cr,O deposited on the same substrate.