Patent · US Expired

Heat pipe cooling for turbine stators

US5975841A · kind A · utility

371Cited by
16References
10Claims
0Family size

Assignee

Inventors

Key dates

Filing dateOct 3, 1997
Grant dateNov 2, 1999
Priority date
Expiry dateOct 3, 2017

Classification

  • Technology area (CPC F)Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
  • CPC primaryF05D2260/208
  • WIPO fieldEngines, pumps, turbines
  • WIPO sectorMechanical engineering

Abstract

The apparatus is a heat pipe with an internal, multiple chamber evaporator for cooling a turbine engine stator vane. The evaporator comprises leading edge, middle, and trailing edge chambers within the stator vane, with the chambers defined by structural support ribs. Each chamber is constructed with a continuous fine pore metal powder wick coating the internal surfaces of the chamber and enclosing the chamber's central vapor space, except the wick at the very trailing edge of the vane is formed by screen embedded in the adjacent powder wick. The evaporator chambers have capillary arteries which extend through the adiabatic section of the heat pipe and terminate in a condenser wick within a heat sink structure exposed to cooler air. A capillary artery also interconnects the wick of the trailing edge chamber to the wick of the middle chamber.

Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.