Damage initiation and propagation simulation of coatings in coating/substrate structures under thermal loading using discrete element method

Coatings are used in various industries in order to improve the surface properties of materials. Delamination of coatings from their substrate, at the root of channel cracks, is one of the common failure modes in these structures. In this paper, discrete element method is used in order to simulate the initiation and propagation of damages, caused by the mismatch between the thermal expansion coefficients of coating and substrate. Coating and substrate are considered to be brittle elastic in which, substrate is stiffer than the coating, but the thermal expansion coefficient of coating is considered to be much greater than substrate. The interface properties are also considered to be the geometric average between the coating and substrate. Temperature reduction is applied to the whole structure as loading. The effect of elastic mismatch and coating thickness was investigated. The results showed that, by increasing the elastic mismatch and decreasing the coating thickness, the temperature reduction, need to delamination initiation at the interface, increased. Also, changing in the damage propagation pattern was happened by changing in the elastic mismatch. In coatings with high elastic mismatch, damage propagation was happened inside them but by increasing the stiffness, damage propagation happened at the interface.