Performance of Thermal Barrier Coating on Exhaust System Component

Thermal management in automobiles is important to keep the passenger cabin and heat sensitive components away from thermal effects. Hence various types of insulation methods are used to reduce the thermal effects. Heatshields are the most common method of thermal insulation. They can be classified into various types based on their construction architecture and insulation materials. Some of the heat shielding systems contain fibre materials that are hazardous to health due to their carcinogenic effects and hence not recommended. With increasing space constraints in the compact vehicle architecture designs, packaging space is premium, limiting the size of heatshields. In addition, from durability aspect, heatshields alone are not adequate to withstand high temperatures during the service life of exhaust systems. Hence the role of Thermal Barrier Coating (TBC) as an alternative solution comes effective.

TBC’s are ceramic coatings which can take care of extended heat loads and temperature differences. This coating not only provides thermal insulation but also improves the fatigue life of substrate material. Hence in this paper, the application of TBC on exhaust system components with respect to thermal insulation and thermo mechanical fatigue are studied. Virtual analysis and physical test are carried out to validate the results. TBC coating on exhaust component shows promising results.