Gas powered turbine component including serpentine cooling

A gas powered turbine engine comprising:

• a compressor section;
• a combustor section fluidly connected to said compressor section via a primary flow path;
• a turbine section fluidly connected to the combustor section via the primary flow path;
• a plurality of flow path components at least partially spanning said primary flow path, at least one of the flow path components includes a shielded cavity and a serpentine cooling passage configured to shield at least a first side of the shielded cavity, wherein the first side of the shielded cavity is a hot side and a second side of the shielded cavity, opposite the first side of the shielded cavity, is a cold side;
• and
• the serpentine cooling passage further includes at least one segment spanning said flow path component, the at least one segment including at least one purge configured to purge coolant from said serpentine cooling passage at a side of the flow path component opposite the first side of the shielded cavity, the side of the flow path component corresponding to the second side of the shielded cavity, and wherein only an aftmost segment of the serpentine cooling passage includes at least one coolant purge.

A method for actively cooling a flow path component comprising:

• passing a coolant through a first subset of segments of a serpentine cooling passage, thereby shielding a hot side of a cavity in a flow path component;
• passing said coolant through a second subset of segments of the serpentine cooling passage, wherein the second subset of segments spans a hot side to a cold side of the serpentine cooling passage;
• and
• purging coolant from the serpentine cooling passage into a flow path on the cold side of the flow path component from a downstream end of an aftmost segment of the serpentine passage, and wherein only the aftmost segment of the serpentine cooling passage includes at least one coolant purge.