Turbine blade with preferentially-cooled trailing edge pressure wall
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorChing-Pang Lee
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An air-cooled airfoil whose surfaces adjacent its trailing edge are not equally cooled in order to compensate for unequal heating of the pressure and suction walls near the trailing edge. The airfoil is formed to have a cooling passage defined by and between the pressure and suction walls at the airfoil trailing edge. The interior surface of the suction wall is formed to be substantially smooth and uninterrupted, while the interior surface of the pressure wall is formed to include surface features that project into the cooling passage to cause preferential convective cooling of the pressure wall as compared to the suction wall when air flows through the cooling passage.
Claims15
An air-cooled airfoil having a trailing edge, opposing pressure and suction walls at the trailing edge, and a cooling passage between the pressure and suction walls and defined by interior surfaces of the pressure and suction walls, the interior surface of the suction wall being substantially smooth and uninterrupted, the pressure wall comprising a surface feature on the interior surface thereof that projects into the cooling passage to cause preferential convective cooling of the pressure wall as compared to the suction wall when air flows through the cooling passage.
An air-cooled gas turbine engine turbine blade having a trailing edge, opposing pressure and suction walls, a plurality of cooling cavities between the pressure and suction walls, surface features projecting into each of the plurality of cooling cavities from the pressure and suction walls, and a trailing edge cooling passage at the trailing edge and defined by interior surfaces of the pressure and suction walls, the interior surface of the trailing edge cooling passage being substantially smooth and uninterrupted, the pressure wall comprising a surface feature on the interior surface thereof that projects into the trailing edge cooling passage to cause preferential convective cooling of the pressure wall as compared to the suction wall when air flows through the trailing edge cooling passage.
An air-cooled gas turbine engine turbine blade having a trailing edge, opposing pressure and suction walls, a plurality of cooling cavities between the pressure and suction walls, surface features projecting into each of the plurality of cooling cavities from the pressure and suction walls, and a trailing edge cooling passage at the trailing edge and defined by interior surfaces of the pressure and suction walls, the pressure wall comprising a plurality of turbulators on the interior surface thereof that project into the trailing edge cooling passage, the interior surface of the trailing edge cooling passage being free of any turbulators such that the interior surface of the suction wall is characterized by a heat transfer coefficient that is one-half or less of the heat transfer coefficient of the interior surface of the pressure wall, causing preferential convective cooling of the pressure wall as compared to the suction wall when air flows through the trailing edge cooling passage.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.