Engine component with cooling hole
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsZachary Daniel Webster, Aaron Ezekiel Smith, Steven Robert Brassfield
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An apparatus and method an airfoil for a turbine engine, the airfoil comprising an outer wall defining an interior bound by a pressure side and a suction side extending axially between a leading edge and a trailing edge defining a chord-wise direction and extending radially between a root and a tip defining a span-wise direction. The airfoil further includes at least one cooling hole including a diffusing section and fluidly coupling an exterior of the engine component to an exterior of the engine component.
Claims21
A component for a turbine engine, which generates a hot gas, and provides a cooling fluid flow, comprising:
- an outer wall separating the hot gas from the cooling fluid flow and having a heated surface along which the hot gas flows and a cooled surface facing the cooling fluid flow;
- and
- at least one cooling hole comprising an inlet at the cooled surface and at least two outlets at the heated surface, a furcated cooling passage having a trunk extending from the inlet and branches extending from the trunk to the at least two outlets, with an interior diffusing section formed in the trunk at a junction with the branches and exterior diffusing sections defining the at least two outlets;
- and
- at least one connecting metering section having a decreasing cross-sectional area along a flow direction through the at least one cooling hole located between the interior diffusing section and the exterior diffusing sections.
An airfoil for a turbine engine, which generates a hot gas, and provides a cooling fluid flow, comprising:
- an outer wall separating the hot gas from the cooling fluid flow and having a heated surface along which the hot gas flows and a cooled surface facing the cooling fluid flow;
- at least one cooling hole comprising an inlet at the cooled surface and at least two outlets at the heated surface, a furcated cooling passage having a trunk extending from the inlet and branches extending from the trunk to the at least two outlets, with an interior diffusing section formed in the trunk at a junction with the branches and exterior diffusing sections defining the at least two outlets;
- and
- at least one connecting metering section defining a constant cross-sectional area located between the interior diffusing section and the exterior diffusing sections.
A method of cooling an engine component with at least one cooling hole extending through an outer wall of the engine component between an inlet along a cooled surface facing a cooling fluid flow and at least two outlets along a heated surface along which hot gas flows;
- the method comprising:
- flowing the cooling fluid flow through an interior diffusion section of the at least one cooling hole to form a first diffused airflow;
- splitting the first diffused airflow into multiple branches;
- metering the first diffused airflow through a connecting metering section in each of the multiple branches having a decreasing cross-sectional area within the connecting metering section;
- diffusing the first diffused airflow in each of the multiple branches after flowing the first diffused airflow through the connecting metering section to form a second diffused airflow;
- and
- emitting the second diffused airflow onto the heated surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.