Cooling circuit for use in turbine bucket cooling
AssigneeGeneral Electric Company
InventorsJohn Raymond Hess, Kenneth Moore, Eric Roush
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system and a method to supply a coolant to a turbine bucket of a turbine. The system includes an extraction system configured to extract air from a main compressor airflow, a supply circuit, at least a part of which is disposed at an exterior of the gas turbine, coupled to the extraction system and configured to transport the extracted air, as an ingredient of the coolant, from the extraction system to a coolant insertion region, and a cooling system, disposed proximate to the coolant insertion region of the gas turbine and coupled to the supply circuit at a position on-board the gas turbine, the cooling system being configured to supply the turbine bucket with the coolant, including the extracted air.
Claims20
A system to supply a coolant to a turbine bucket of a gas turbine, the system comprising:
- an extraction system configured to extract air from a main compressor airflow at a set of extraction points defined axially along the main compressor airflow;
- a supply circuit partially disposed at an exterior of the gas turbine and coupled to the extraction system, the supply circuit being configured to transport a substantial entirety of the extracted air, as an ingredient of the coolant, from the extraction system to the exterior of the gas turbine and then to a coolant insertion region of the gas turbine at a position on-board the gas turbine, which is defined radially inwardly from a radially inward-most portion of a rotation disc driven by the turbine bucket;
- and
- a cooling system, disposed proximate to the coolant insertion region and coupled to the supply circuit at the position on-board the gas turbine, the cooling system being configured to supply the turbine bucket with the coolant, including the extracted air, in a radially increasing direction.
A system to supply a coolant to turbine buckets of a gas turbine, the system comprising:
- an extraction system configured to extract a set of air supplies from a main compressor airflow at a set of extraction points defined axially along the main compressor airflow;
- a supply circuit partially disposed at an exterior of the gas turbine, coupled to the extraction system and configured to transport a substantial entirety of each of the supplies of the extracted air, as ingredients of the coolant, from the extraction system to the exterior of the gas turbine and then to a coolant insertion region of the gas turbine at a position on-board the gas turbine, which is defined radially inwardly from radially inward-most portions of rotation discs driven by the turbine buckets;
- and
- a cooling system, disposed proximate to the coolant insertion region and coupled to the supply circuit at the position on-board the turbine, the cooling system being configured to supply the turbine buckets with the coolant, including each of the supplies of the extracted air, in a radially increasing direction.
A method of supplying a coolant to a turbine bucket of a gas turbine, the method comprising:
- extracting air from a main compressor airflow at multiple extraction points defined axially along the main compressor airflow;
- transporting a substantial entirety of the extracted air, as an ingredient of the coolant, to an exterior of the gas turbine and then to a coolant insertion region of the gas turbine at an on-board position of the gas turbine, which is defined radially inwardly from a radially inward-most portion of a rotation disc driven by the turbine bucket;
- and
- supplying increasingly aft positioned ones of the turbine bucket with the coolant, including the extracted air, in a radially increasing direction.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.