Gas turbine bucket with serpentine cooled platform and related method
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorMelissa Ann SEELY
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A cooling circuit for a turbine bucket having a shank, a platform and an airfoil. The cooling circuit includes a first cooling passage extending from an inlet located at a radially inward end of the shank and adapted to communicate with a turbine wheel-space, the first cooling passage, in use, supplying cooling air to a serpentine cooling circuit extending within and across at least one region of the platform. The serpentine cooling circuit connects with a separate internal cooling circuit in the airfoil, such that the cooling air used to cool the platform is re-used in the airfoil cooling circuit.
Claims20
A cooling circuit for a turbine bucket having a shank, a platform and an airfoil, the cooling circuit comprising:
- a first cooling passage extending from an inlet located at a radially inward end of said shank and adapted to communicate with a turbine wheel-space, said first cooling passage, in use, supplying cooling air to a serpentine cooling circuit extending within and across at least one region of said platform, said serpentine cooling circuit connecting with a separate internal cooling circuit in said airfoil, such that the cooling air used to cool the platform is re-used in the airfoil cooling circuit.
A cooling circuit for a turbine bucket having a shank, a platform and an airfoil, the cooling circuit comprising:
- a first cooling passage extending from an inlet located at a radially inward end of the shank and adapted to communicate with a turbine wheel-space, the first cooling passage, in use, supplying cooling air to a serpentine cooling circuit extending within and across at least one region of the platform, said serpentine cooling circuit connecting with a separate internal cooling circuit passage proximate a trailing edge of the airfoil, such that the cooling air used to cool the platform is re-used in the airfoil cooling circuit;
- wherein said platform includes a first region on a pressure side of said airfoil portion and a second region on a suction side of said airfoil portion, said at least one region comprising said first region on said pressure side of said airfoil.
A method of cooling a gas turbine bucket platform comprising:
- (a) extracting compressor cooling air from a wheel space area between blade wheels mounted on a turbine rotor;
- (b) feeding extracted compressor cooling air from a radially oriented passage along a leading edge of a shank portion of the bucket to a serpentine cooling passage formed in the platform;
- (c) dumping the extracted compressor cooling air into an internal cooling circuit in the bucket airfoil;
- and
- (d) exhausting the extracted compressor cooling air along a trailing edge of the bucket airfoil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.