Turbine blade support assembly and a turbine assembly

A turbine assembly comprising a rotatable support arrangement, a plurality of turbine blades extending radially outwardly from the support arrangement, and flow path means extending radially in each of the blades for a flow of cooling fluid therethrough, and the flow path means being connectable to a supply of relatively cold cooling fluid, wherein the flow path means is arranged such that the relatively cold cooling fluid is driven radially outwardly through the flow path means substantially wholly by the centrifugal force generated by rotation of the turbine assembly in operation, to displace relatively hot cooling fluid radially inwardly through the flow path means, the support arrangement defining a second flow path means in fluid communication with the first mentioned flow path means to connect the first mentioned flow path means to the source of cooling fluid, said second flow path means comprising a feed flow path extending from an inlet to the first flow path and an exhaust flow path extending from the second flow path to an outlet, said inlet and outlet being located at substantially the inner most region of the support arrangement.