Shroud and vane segments having edge notches
AssigneePratt & Whitney Canada Corp.
InventorRemy Synnott
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Random air flow leakage between a shroud assembly and a stator vane assembly into the gas path of a gas turbine engine due to manufacturing tolerance stack-up is reduced by providing notches to inhibit interference caused by misalignment and/or mismatch of adjacent segments.
Claims13
A shroud segment of a gas turbine engine, the segment comprising:
- a body having a trailing edge defined between a pair of trailing edge corners and a leading edge defined between a pair of leading edge corners, at least one of the leading edge corners and at least one of the trailing edge corners having a notch defined therein, respectively, each of the notches adapted to accommodate at least one of a circumferential misalignment and an axial mismatch between the body and an abutting edge of an adjacent vane segment when installed in the gas turbine engine.
A shroud and vane assembly for a gas turbine engine, the assembly comprising:
- a plurality of shroud segments co-operating along a plurality of inter-shroud-segment interfaces to form an annular array having a vane-mating surface;
- a plurality of vane segments co-operating along a plurality of inter-vane-segment interfaces to form an annular array having a shroud-mating surface adapted to mate with the vane-mating surface;
- and
- notch means defined in a shroud-mating surface for accommodating tolerance-related discontinuity, said tolerance-related discontinuity caused by at least one of circumferential misalignment and axial mismatch of at least one of adjacent shroud segments and adjacent vane segments.
A method of controlling an air flow leakage between a shroud assembly and a vane assembly of a gas turbine engine, said leakage being caused by tolerance stack-up of shroud segments and of vane segments of the respective shroud assembly and vane assembly, the method comprising steps of:
- (a) determining a maximum allowable tolerance stack-up of at least one of the shroud segments and the vane segments;
- and (b) providing a notch in at least one corner of the other one of the shroud segments and the vane segments, the notch being located and sized relative to said maximum allowable tolerance to correspond, when assembled, to any discontinuity due to such tolerance and thereby to inhibit assembly interference which would otherwise be caused by such discontinuity.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.