NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION ON CERAMIC COATINGS UNDER SPHERICAL INDENTATION WITH METALLIC INTERLAYER- PART I:: UNCRACKED COATINGS.

Radial stress distribution and plastic damage zones evolution in ceramic coating/metallic interlayer/ductile substrate systems under spherical indentation were investigated numerically by axisymmetric finite element analysis (FEA) for a typical ceramic coating deposited on carbon steel with various indenter radius-coating thickness ratios and interlayer thickness-coating thickness ratios. The results showed that the suitable metallic interlayer could improve resistance of ceramic coating systems through reducing the peak tensile radial stress on the surface and interface of ceramic coatings and plastic damage zone size in the substrate under spherical indentation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]