Turbine blade cooling with a hollow airfoil configured to minimize a distance between a pin array section and the trailing edge of the air foil

US8231329B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignee

• General Electric Company · US

Inventors

• Edward D. Benjamin · Greenville, US
• Daniel David Snook · Palaiseau, FR

Key dates

• Filing date: Dec 30, 2008
• Grant date: Jul 31, 2012
• Expiry date: Dec 14, 2030

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y02T50/60
• WIPO field: Engines, pumps, turbines
• WIPO sector: Mechanical engineering

Abstract

A turbine blade with a generally hollow airfoil having an outer wall that defines a chamber for receiving cooling air, the airfoil comprising a leading edge that resides in an upstream direction, a trailing edge that resides in a downstream direction, a convex suction side, a concave pressure side, and an insert disposed within the chamber that is configured to initially receive at least a portion of the cooling air entering the chamber and direct the cooling air through a plurality of insert apertures to cool the inner surface of the outer wall, the insert further comprising a configuration that generally conforms to the contour of the outer wall of the chamber but in spaced relation thereto, wherein the chamber and insert narrow as they extend toward the trailing edge, the insert eventually terminating and the chamber eventually terminating at a pin array section, wherein a first distance exists that comprises the generally axial distance between the position of downstream termination point of the insert and the position of an upstream beginning point of the pin array section, wherein the pin array section, at a downstream end, comprises a plurality of openings that define an inl…