Transient heat conduction across thermal barrier coating on an anisotropic substrate

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the transient heat conduction in a two-dimensional anisotropic substrate coated with a thin layer of thermal barrier coating (TBC). Nowadays, materials with anisotropic properties have been extensively applied in various engineering applications for enhanced strength. However, under an extreme operating environment of high temperature, the strength of the materials may largely decline. As a common practice in engineering, TBC are usually applied to thermally insulate the substrates so as to allow for higher operating temperature. This research provides engineers a numerical approach for properly designing the TBC to protect the anisotropic substrate. Design/methodology/approach - For this investigation, a finite difference scheme using the domain mapping technique, transforming the anisotropic domain into isotropic one, is employed. The analysis considers three respective boundary conditions, namely Dirichelete condition, Neumann condition, and also forced convection, and studies the effect of various variables on the heat conduction in the coated system. Additionally, formulas for the steady-state temperature drop across the coating layer at the center are analytically derived. By comparing the numerical results with the analytical solutions, the veracity of the formulas is verified.