Stress analysis of high temperature ZrO₂ insulation coatings on Ag using finite element method

The aim of this study is to investigate residual stresses occurred during cooling procedure of ZrO₂ insulation coating on Ag substrate for magnet technologies. ZrO₂ coatings were produced on Ag tape substrate by using a reel-to-reel sol-gel technique. SEM inspection showed that ZrO₂ coatings had mosaic structures. ANSYS finite element software was used to calculate the temperature and stress distribution of the ZrO₂/Ag structure. The effect of coating thickness on residual stresses was also examined. The results obtained showed that thermal stresses in ZrO₂ coating and Ag substrate were considerably affected by the cooling time and coating thickness. It is concluded the thermal stresses increase with increase of film thickness.