Transversely isotropic elastic-plastic properties in thermal arc sprayed Al-Zn coating: a microporomechanics approach

Sci Rep. 2020 Jul 7;10(1):11176. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-67694-z.

Abstract

The transversely isotropic behaviour of thermal sprayed aluminium and zinc coating has been investigated based on a combination of nanoindentation experimental data and microporomechanics theory. A recently developed strength homogenisation approach comprises of the solid and porous medium is adopted to investigate the morphology properties of thermal sprayed aluminum and zinc coating. The finding of this paper demonstrates that the individual aluminum and zinc phases in the coating have a characteristic packing density close to the theoretical highest spherical packing ratio for face-centred cubic and hexagonal close packed. Also, the plasticity properties of solid particles in both aluminum and zinc are found to have a significant transversely isotropic condition, while the elasticity properties are close to isotropic. These findings led to the conclusion that the anisotropic condition of the coating is dominantly affected by the plasticity properties, in terms of cohesion and friction coefficient.