Turbine rim cavity sealing
AssigneeFlorida Turbine Technologies, Inc.
InventorGeorge Liang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A rim cavity seal arrangement for a gas turbine engine, where the rim cavity is formed between two rotor disk stages with a stator vane assembly positioned between the rotor disks and extending into the rim cavity. A cover plate secured onto a side of the rotor disk includes a plurality of cooling air injectors directed to discharge cooling air into an annular groove formed on the underside of the vane endwall adjacent to the rotor disk to form an air cushion that seals the rim cavity from hot gas ingestion. The cover plate forms a cooling air supply passage with the rotor disk side to supply the injectors, and the cover plate includes at least one metering hole to meter the pressurized air into the injectors.
Claims19
A gas turbine engine comprising:
- a first rotor disk with a row of first rotor blades extending into a hot gas flow path;
- a second rotor disk with a row of second rotor blades extending into the hot gas flow path;
- a first stator vane assembly positioned between the first and second rows of rotor blades;
- an annular groove formed on an underside of an endwall of the first stator vane assembly;
- a first cover plate secured to the first rotor disk;
- and,
- a cooling air injector extending out from the first cover plate and directed to discharge cooling air into the annular groove to form a fluid seal for a rim cavity.
A process for sealing a rim cavity in a multiple staged turbine of a gas turbine engine, the turbine having a first rotor disk and a second rotor disk, a first vane assembly positioned between the two rotor disks, and a rim cavity formed between the two rotor disks, the process comprising the steps of:
- supplying pressurized cooling air to a dead rim cavity of the turbine;
- metering the pressurized cooling air from the dead rim cavity through a cover plate;
- and,
- discharging the metered cooling air from the cover plate into an annular groove formed underneath the stator vane endwall to form a fluid air cushion to reduce hot gas ingestion into the rim cavity.
A rim cavity in a gas turbine engine comprising:
- a rotor disk with a cover plate secured on a side;
- a stator vane endwall adjacent to the rotor disk;
- an annular groove formed on an underside of the vane endwall;
- and,
- a cooling air injector extending from the cover plate and directed to discharge cooling air into the annular groove to form an air cushion.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.