Turbine blade with tip sealing and cooling

A turbine rotor blade comprising:

• an airfoil section having a pressure side wall and a suction side wall;
• a cooling air cavity formed between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall;
• a pressure side tip rail and a suction side tip rail forming a squealer pocket on a tip floor;
• the pressure side tip rail being offset from the pressure side wall of the airfoil;
• the suction side tip rail includes an aft side wall that is both flush with the suction side airfoil wall and slanted in a direction towards the pressure side wall;
• and,
• both the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail includes a flat top surface;
• and,
• the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail both include a row of air jet passages opening onto the flat top surfaces of the tip rails and connected to radial cooling channels formed within the suction side wall of the airfoil.

A turbine rotor blade comprising:

• an airfoil section having a pressure side wall and a suction side wall;
• a cooling air cavity formed between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall;
• a pressure side tip rail and a suction side tip rail forming a squealer pocket on a tip floor;
• the pressure side tip rail being offset from the pressure side wall of the airfoil;
• the suction side tip rail includes an aft side wall that is both flush with the suction side airfoil wall and slanted in a direction towards the pressure side wall;
• and,
• both the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail includes a flat top surface;
• a cooling air supply cavity formed between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall of the airfoil;
• a metering hole to connect a cooling air inlet cavity formed within a root section of the blade to the cooling air supply cavity;
• and,
• the cooling air supply cavity is not fluidly connected to radial cooling channels or tip floor cooling channels.

A turbine rotor blade comprising:

• an airfoil section having a pressure side wall and a suction side wall;
• a cooling air cavity formed between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall;
• a pressure side tip rail and a suction side tip rail forming a squealer pocket on a tip floor;
• the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail both include a concave shaped deflector on a forward side wall of the tip rail;
• the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail both include a row of air jet passages opening onto a top surface of the tip rail;
• and,
• the deflectors and the air jet passages being connected to a cooling air passage within the airfoil such that cooling air is discharged into the deflectors and out from the air jet passages.

A turbine rotor blade comprising:

• an airfoil section with a pressure side wall and a suction side wall;
• a cooling air cavity formed between the two side walls;
• a plurality of pressure side radial near wall cooling passages formed within the pressure side wall of the airfoil;
• a plurality of suction side radial near wall cooling passages formed within the suction side wall of the airfoil;
• a tip floor having a plurality of tip floor cooling channels connected to the pressure side radial cooling channels;
• the tip floor having a plurality of tip floor cooling channels connected to the suction side radial cooling channels;
• and,
• the pressure side tip floor cooling channels and the suction side tip floor cooling channels alternating along the tip floor.

A process for cooling and sealing a tip region of a turbine rotor blade, the turbine rotor blade includes an airfoil section with a pressure side wall and a suction side wall with a cooling air cavity formed between the two side walls, the turbine rotor blade also includes a continuous tip rail with a pressure side tip rail offset from the pressure side wall and a suction side tip rail flush with the suction side wall, the process comprising the steps of:

• passing cooling air through the pressure side wall to produce near wall cooling of the pressure side wall;
• passing cooling air through the suction side wall to produce near wall cooling of the suction side wall;
• discharging the cooling air from the pressure side wall cooling on a forward side wall of the pressure side and suction side tip rails to form a vortex flow of cooling air;
• and,
• discharging the cooling air from the suction side wall cooling out through the tip rails to produce air jets to block on-coming leakage flow across the blade tip.