Abstract: The 8wt% yttrium stabilized zirconia (8YSZ) thermal barrier coating was prepared by plasma spraying, and the thermal insulation and thermal shock cycle tests were carried out. A simple finite element model was constructed to simulate the thermal insulation performance and the internal stress evolution in thermal shock cycle, and the failure mechanism was analyzed. The results show that the thermal insulation temperature of the barrier coating by simulation was 167.60-262.22℃, indicating the thermal insulation effect was good, and the relative error between the simulation and the test result was less than 10%. The thermal insulation effect increased with increasing thickness. The stress generated by thermal shock cycles was concentrated at the edge of the coating interface, which was consistent with the failure mode obtained by experiments that cracks and fall off appeared at the coating edge and expanded to the core. With increasing thickness of the coating, the stress after heating and cooling of the thermal shock cycle increased.