Gusset with fibers oriented to strengthen a CMC wall intersection anisotropically

Abstract

A gusset (40A-G) between two CMC walls (26, 28) has fibers (23) oriented to provide anisotropic strengthening of the wall intersection (34). The fibers (23) may be oriented diagonally to oppose in tension a wall-spreading moment of the walls (26, 28) about the intersection (34). Interlocking features (46, 48, 52, 56, 58) may be provided on the gusset to improve load sharing between the gusset and the walls. The gusset may have one or more diagonal edges (50, 51) that contact matching edges of a slot (42, 42D, 43D) to oppose wall-spreading (M1) and wall-closing (M2) bending of the walls (26, 28). The gusset may be installed in the slot after preparing the gusset and the walls to different temperatures. Then the assembly may be final-fired to produce differential shrinkage that causes compression of the gusset or the wall intersection.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.