Closed loop steam cooled airfoil
AssigneeSiemens Power Generation, Inc.
InventorsScott M. Widrig, Ronald J. Rudolph, Gregg P. Wagner
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An airfoil, a method of manufacturing an airfoil, and a system for cooling an airfoil is provided. The cooling system can be used with an airfoil located in the first stages of a combustion turbine within a combined cycle power generation plant and involves flowing closed loop steam through a pin array set within an airfoil. The airfoil can comprise a cavity having a cooling chamber bounded by an interior wall and an exterior wall so that steam can enter the cavity, pass through the pin array, and then return to the cavity to thereby cool the airfoil. The method of manufacturing an airfoil can include a type of lost wax investment casting process in which a pin array is cast into an airfoil to form a cooling chamber.
Claims9
A method of manufacturing a closed loop steam cooled cast airfoil, comprising:
- attaching an array core to a main core;
- covering the main and array cores with wax to form a cast assembly;
- removing the wax from the cast assembly to form cavities within the cast assembly having an intake from which the steam enters the airfoil and having an exhaust from where the steam exists the airfoil;
- placing metal in the cavities;
- and
- removing the main and array cores to form the cast airfoil.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.