Abstract: A compressor stator vane and rotor blade tip clearance control assembly in which a plurality of stator vane segments each with vanes extending inward are connected to an annular sync ring through eccentric cranks so that circumferential movement of the sync ring will produce radial displacement of the vane segments and control the clearance between the blade tips. An actuator piston is rigidly fixed to the sync ring and forms an actuator chamber with stationary actuator housing. Bleed off pressure from one of the compressor stages is used to move the actuator piston, which moves the sync ring to radially displace the vane segments.

Abstract: A turbine stator vane with a low volume cooling circuit, the vane includes inner and outer endwall impingement cavities that feed cooling air to upward and downward flowing near wall cooling passages formed within the walls of the airfoil. The cooling passages then discharge into a collection cavity where the cooling air then flows out through trailing edge exit holes to cool the trailing edge region. The cooling passages are staggered from upward flowing to downward flowing.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a platform cooling circuit that includes three zones with one zone occupying the entire pressure side of the platform and two zones occupying the entire suction side of the platform. Each zone is formed with a series of impingement ribs that form separated impingement chambers with impingement holes formed in the ribs to form a series of impingement holes with impingement chambers along the entire platform. Each zone is supplied with cooling air from one or more cooling air supply holes located in the forward most impingement chamber. The three zones discharge cooling air out through exit holes located along the two mate-faces and the aft side of the platform so that the cooling air discharged does not overlap.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a serpentine flow cooling circuit having three legs in which the first leg and the second leg are upward flowing channels each having a series of slanted ribs that define impingement chambers with impingement cooling holes to provide impingement cooling to the airfoil walls. The second leg is a downward flowing leg that contains no metering holes and is substantially unobstructed to the cooling air flow. The rotation of the blade produces a centrifugal force on the airflow passing through the channels with the metering and impingement holes to aid in the flow towards the blade tip. The return channels are unobstructed in order to minimize the pressure loss on the return channel of the serpentine circuit.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a platform includes platform cooling channels on the pressure side and the suction side of the platform. The cooling channels are formed from straight section that generally follows a contour of the airfoil in order to provide cooling to as much of the platform surfaces as possible. Pressure side cooling channels have a V-shape from inlet to outlet. Suction side channels branch off from a common channel located along a suction side edge of the platform.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade of the spar and shell construction, the spar including a tip end with a dovetail shaped groove extending from the top, and a tip cap includes a dovetail shaped slot that engages with the spar groove to retain the tip cap in place. A shell made from a high temperature resistant material is secured in place between the platform and the tip cap. The platform includes a core extending into a hollow space formed by the shell and discharges impingement cooling air against the backside wall of the shell. The spar and the platform include fir tree configurations so that an assembled blade can be inserted into a slot of a rotor disk.

Abstract: A thin wall turbine blade used in a gas turbine engine, in which the blade is cast in conventional grain from a super alloy using the lost wax process as a single piece, and then the blade walls are machined to remove enough material to leave a thin wall. The blade is cast with a wall thickness greater than the designed for thin wall in order that any core shifting during the casting process will be accounted for in the machining process. prior to machining, a scanning process is used to measure the actual wall thickness on all portions of the blade wall in order to determine how much material must be removed to leave the blade wall with the proper thinness.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a hollow open cavity formed between the airfoil walls, and radial flow near wall cooling channels formed within the walls that open on the tip surface to discharge the cooling air for sealing of the tip. The radial channels have a converging flow area to increase the cooling air flow velocity, and the radial cooling channels on the pressure side wall are slanted toward the pressure side so that the discharged cooling air will produce a smaller vena contractor and further reduce tip leakage flow.

Abstract: A process for redesigning a distressed component in which the distressed component is under thermal and structural loads, for improving the life of the component. The process includes obtaining the operating conditions of the machine in which the distressed component is used, finding the boundary conditions under which the distressed component operates, producing a 3-dimensional model of the distressed component with such detail that the distress levels are accurately represented on the model, subjecting the model to a series of technical analysis to predict a life for the component, reiterating the technical analysis until the levels of distress on the model accurately represent the distress that appears on the actual component, and then predicting a remaining life of the component based on the analysis, or redesigning the model and reanalyzing the model until a maximum life for the component has been found.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a cooling air channel formed in a mid-chord region, the channel includes a number of rows of semi-circular shaped ribs that extend across the channel and open toward the blade tip. Adjacent ribs form metering and impingement passages that discharge a jet of cooling air against the rib above it. The open ends of the ribs form vortex generating passages in which the impingement cooling air flows into to form a vortex flow pattern in the cooling air.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with counter flowing near wall cooling channels that includes an outer spanwise flowing near wall cooling channel and an inner chordwise flowing near wall cooling channel connected in series and with an arrangement of pedestals to produce turbulent flow. Cooling air form the spanwise flow channels flows through a blade tip floor cooling channel and then into a collection cavity, and then through impingement cooling holes in the leading edge region and into the chordwise channels before discharging out exit holes on both sides of the blade. An arrangement of pedestals forms 90 degree flow paths through the near wall cooling channels.

Abstract: A turbine stator vane for an industrial engine, the vane having two impingement cooling inserts that produce a series of impingement cooling from the pressure side to the suction side of the vane walls. Each insert includes a spar with a row of alternating impingement cooling channels and return air channels extending in a radial direction. Impingement cooling plates cover the two sides of the insert and having rows of impingement cooling holes aligned with the impingement cooling channels and return air openings aligned with the return air channel.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a thin thermal skin bonded to a spar to form a near-wall cooled blade, the blade having a near-wall cooling circuit formed by plurality of multiple pass serpentine flow cooling circuits that have cooling channels formed within the airfoil walls and the platform, and with a row of cooling air exit slots that connect to the last leg of the serpentine flow cooling channels and open onto an upstream side of the tip edge so that cooling air is discharged to form a blockage for the blade tip. The airfoil walls include radial extending cooling channels that form the airfoil legs of the serpentine cooling circuits.

Abstract: A trailing edge cooling circuit for a turbine rotor blade, which includes a radial flow cooling channel that supplies cooling air for the T/E region of the blade. Three radial flow cooling channels are located adjacent to one another and connected to the radial flow cooling supply channel, each discharging through an opening along the T/E just underneath the blade tip. The radial flow cooling channels in the T/E region are connected together by rows of metering holes in the middle spanwise height of the blade that produce mixing of the cooling air flowing upward toward the blade tip and improve the cooling effectiveness of the cooling air. A row of exit holes along the T/E discharge cooling air from the third radial flow cooling channel.

Abstract: A BOAS with a blade tip shroud having a row of teeth formed by rows of grooves on an underside surface, and where rows of teeth include cooling air passages to provide cooling for the blade tip shroud and to discharge cooling air into the blade tip gap to reduce an effective hot gas leakage area to reduce the blade tip leakage flow. The cooling passages include inlet convergent channels to increase the cooling air flow velocity, followed by flow metering sections and then cooling air exit slots that open onto the bottom surface of the teeth.

Abstract: A high compression ratio compressor having multiple stages of airfoils to produce the high pressure rations, where the last stage airfoils are cooled by drawing heat away from the airfoils using a heat pipe, and then passing cooling air through a heat exchanger associated with the heat pipe to draw heat away from the heat pipe. The cooling air used for cooling the airfoils is bled off from an earlier stage than the last stage and then discharged into a stage upstream from the bleed off location.

Abstract: A ring segment for a turbine in an industrial gas turbine engine, the ring segment having an inner side with a number of pedestals extending radially inward, each pedestal having an inlet metering hole connected to a diffusion chamber having an opening flush with a TBC covering the pedestals. The pedestals form a larger surface area to secure the TBC to the ring segment so that the TBC can be formed thicker than the prior art without spalling.

Abstract: An industrial gas turbine engine capable of operating at higher temperatures than air cooled nickel based alloy airfoils in the turbine. The engine burns stoichiometric or rich to produce a hot gas stream that is mostly without oxygen, and the turbine airfoils are made from a high temperature resistant material such as a refractory material that also has poor oxidation resistance. A second small gas turbine engine is used to compress nitrogen gas that is used to pass through the turbine airfoils for cooling where the film cooling nitrogen gas is injected into the hot gas stream but without igniting the fuel rich gas stream.

Abstract: A turbine blade with a squealer pocket formed by a tip rail extending along the pressure side and suction side of the tip. A row of diffusion trenches are spaced along the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail, each trench formed by side walls and a bottom wall so that the front face and top face of the trench is open. Each trench includes side walls that increase in width in the direction of the tip crown, is connected by a metering hole to discharge cooling air into the trench, are separated from each other and are spaced from near the leading edge to near the trailing edge, and includes a curved inward surface toward the squealer pocket. Two rows of convective cooling holes are spaced adjacent to the pressure side tip rail and the suction side tip rail and open into the squealer pocket.

Abstract: A stator vane assembly with a mate face gap and a seal slot to receive a seal pin. The seal pin includes a row of axial cooling air channels opening on a top side of the seal pin and extending toward a forward end of the seal pin, and a row of metering holes that supply cooling air from the gap below the seal pin to each of the axial cooling channels. Cooling air flows through the metering holes and along the axial cooling channels to provide cooling for the endwall mate face surfaces and the top of the seal pin exposed to a hot gas flow in the gap. Vortex chambers are formed on the forward ends of the seal pin mate face slots, and cooling air holes discharge cooling air from the vortex chambers downward from the vane leading edge corner.