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AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsGerard Anthony Rinck, Jonathan Philip Clarke, Brian Alan Norton
Estimating the term…
A gas turbine engine includes rotor blades including airfoils that facilitates reducing manufacturing losses due to airfoil trailing edge scarfing. Each airfoil includes a first and second sidewall connected at a leading edge and a trailing edge. The sidewalls define a cooling cavity that includes at least a leading edge chamber bounded by the sidewalls and the airfoil leading edge, and a trailing edge chamber bounded by sidewalls and the airfoil trailing edge. The cooling cavity trailing edge chamber includes a tip region, a throat, and a passageway region connected in flow communication such that the throat is between the tip region and the passageway region. Furthermore, the tip region is bounded by the airfoil tip and extends divergently from the throat, such that a width of the tip region is greater than a width of the throat.
A method for manufacturing an airfoil for a gas turbine engine to facilitate reducing airfoil trailing edge scarfing, said method comprising the steps of:
A method in accordance with claim 3 wherein said step of forming a plurality of openings further comprises the step using an electro-chemical machining (EDM) process to form the openings.
An airfoil for a gas turbine engine, said airfoil comprising:
A gas turbine engine comprising a plurality of airfoils, each said airfoil comprising a leading edge, a trailing edge, a wall, and a cooling cavity defined by said wall, said cooling cavity comprising at least two chambers, a first of said chambers bounded by said leading edge, a second of said chambers bounded by said trailing edge, said second chamber comprising a tip region adjacent said trailing edge, said wall comprising a plurality of openings extending therethrough, such that said openings in flow communication with said cooling chamber second chamber tip region, at least a portion of said wall bordering said tip region having a thickness less than 0.168 inches.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.