Stresses and Cracks in Surface Coatings

This extended abstract of the talk to be given at the Danish Metallurgical Society, Winter Meeting 1999, gives an outline of the areas of interest in current projects in wear and corrosion resistant coatings at Materials Technology, Technical University of Denmark (IPT, Materialeteknologi, DTU). It also briefly describes our method of approach in analysing new coating / substrate combinations or new materials processing techniques for producing a given coating. We strive to combine, often in collaboration with others, a fundamental understanding of microstructure, mechanical properties and fracture mechanics in order to determine the mechanical stability of engineering coatings for various critical applications.