In this study, sintering behaviour of plasma-sprayed thermal barrier coatings (PS-TBCs) was investigated experimentally and theoretically. Results show that the sintering kinetics of PS-TBCs is highly stage-sensitive. The sintering proceeds significantly faster at initial short thermal exposure (<20 h), while it slows down dramatically at following long thermal exposure. A detailed examination on microstructural evolution of the PS-TBCs was carried out to understand their sintering behaviour. Results show that, different from the conventional sintering theory, the healing of 2D pores was dominantly responsible for the stage-sensitive sintering kinetics during thermal exposure. In brief, the sintering characteristics of the PS-TBCs are highly structure specific. In addition, a structural model was developed based on the structural characteristics of the PS-TBCs; and the model predicts a well consistent sintering behaviour with experiments. Finally, an outlook towards TBCs with higher performance was put forward.

中文翻译：

---

等离子喷涂 TBC 的烧结特性：实验分析和整体建模

在这项研究中，通过实验和理论研究了等离子喷涂热障涂层 (PS-TBC) 的烧结行为。结果表明，PS-TBCs 的烧结动力学具有高度的阶段敏感性。在最初的短时间热暴露（<20 小时）时，烧结进行得明显更快，而在长时间热暴露后，它会显着减慢。对 PS-TBC 的微观结构演变进行了详细检查，以了解它们的烧结行为。结果表明，与传统的烧结理论不同，二维孔隙的愈合是热暴露过程中阶段敏感烧结动力学的主要因素。简而言之，PS-TBC 的烧结特性具有高度的结构特异性。此外，基于 PS-TBC 的结构特征开发了结构模型；并且该模型通过实验预测了非常一致的烧结行为。最后，提出了对具有更高性能的 TBC 的展望。