Abstract: A system for monitoring the displacement of turbine blades that includes a turbine blade with a cutting tooth and one or more sensor wires, each sensor wire including a severable portion, that become severed by the cutting tooth as turbine blade displacement occurs. The sensor wires may be embedded in a honeycomb, which may be an area of abradable material attached to turbine shrouds. The sensor wires may include a plurality of radial sensor wires embedded in the honeycomb at varying predetermined radial distances from a turbine rotor. The sensor wires also may include a plurality of axial sensor wires embedded in the honeycomb at varying predetermined axial locations along the length of the honeycomb.

Abstract: Blade load path on a gas turbine disk can be diverted to provide a significant disk fatigue life benefit. A plurality of gas turbine blades are attachable to a gas turbine disk, where each of the gas turbine blades includes a blade dovetail engageable in a correspondingly-shaped dovetail slot in the gas turbine disk. In order to reduce gas turbine disk stress, an optimal material removal area is defined according to blade and/or disk geometry to maximize a balance between stress reduction on the gas turbine disk, a useful life of the gas turbine blade, and maintaining or improving the aeromechanical behavior of the gas turbine blade. Removing material from the material removal area effects the maximized balance.

Abstract: Blade load path on a gas turbine disk can be diverted to provide a significant disk fatigue life benefit. A plurality of gas turbine blades are attachable to a gas turbine disk, where each of the gas turbine blades includes a blade dovetail engageable in a correspondingly-shaped dovetail slot in the gas turbine disk. In order to reduce gas turbine disk stress, an optimal material removal area is defined according to blade and/or disk geometry to maximize a balance between stress reduction on the gas turbine disk, a useful life of the gas turbine blade, and maintaining or improving the aeromechanical behavior of the gas turbine blade. Removing material from the material removal area effects the maximized balance.

Abstract: A damper pin for a turbine bucket includes an elongated main body portion of substantially uniform cross-sectional shape having opposite ends, one only of said opposite ends coated with a corrosion and oxidation-resistant coating.

Abstract: A system for monitoring the displacement of turbine blades that includes a turbine blade with a cutting tooth and one or more sensor wires, each sensor wire including a severable portion, that become severed by the cutting tooth as turbine blade displacement occurs. The sensor wires may be embedded in a honeycomb, which may be an area of abradable material attached to turbine shrouds. The sensor wires may include a plurality of radial sensor wires embedded in the honeycomb at varying predetermined radial distances from a turbine rotor. The sensor wires also may include a plurality of axial sensor wires embedded in the honeycomb at varying predetermined axial locations along the length of the honeycomb.

Abstract: Damper pins are disposed in circumferentially registering grooves of turbine bucket platform slash faces. The pins have a plurality of channels formed about peripheral portions thereof for flowing leakage cooling air from below the platform past the pin and groove into the interplatform gap. The channels may be staggered in an axial direction. By flowing cooling air through the channels, the slash faces are convectively cooled, opposite slash faces to the channels are impingement cooled and the exiting cooling air purges the gap between the slash faces adjacent the hot gas path. Alternatively, the channels may be formed in the grooved surfaces and a cylindrical damping pin may be inserted with similar cooling effects.

Abstract: The cooling system includes a plurality of generally radially extending passages within the airfoil for convectively cooling the airfoil. A predetermined number of the passages exit through the airfoil tip. One or more of the remaining passages exit into a plenum adjacent the trailing edge and airfoil tip region of the airfoil and flow radially inwardly along one or more passageways adjacent the trailing edge region. The passageways exit in openings along the pressure side of the airfoil. In this manner, the trailing edge region is convectively cooled as well as film cooled by the film of air exiting the holes.

Abstract: The first-stage buckets have airfoil profiles substantially in accordance with Cartesian coordinate values of X, Y and Z set forth in Table I wherein Z is a perpendicular distance from a plane normal to a radius of the turbine centerline and containing the X and Y values with the Z value commencing at zero in the X, Y plane at the radially innermost aerodynamic section of the airfoil and X and Y are coordinates defining the airfoil profile at each distance Z. The X, Y and Z values may be scaled as a function of the same constant or number to provide a scaled-up or scaled-down airfoil section for the bucket.

Abstract: A tuning rib is added preferably in the aft cavity of a cored turbine bucket to alter the bucket's natural frequencies. The tuning rib may be a solid rib or a segmented rib and is particularly suited for altering high order frequency modes such as 2T, 4F and 1-3S. As such, detrimental crossings of natural bucket frequencies and gas turbine stimuli can be avoided to thereby improve the reliability of a gas turbine without impacting other features of the bucket that are important to the performance of the gas turbine.

Abstract: The first-stage buckets have airfoil profiles substantially in accordance with Cartesian coordinate values of X, Y and Z set forth in Table I wherein Z is a perpendicular distance from a plane normal to a radius of the turbine centerline and containing the X and Y values with the Z value commencing at zero in the X, Y plane at the radially innermost aerodynamic section of the airfoil and X and Y are coordinates defining the airfoil profile at each distance Z. The X, Y and Z values may be scaled as a function of the same constant or number to provide a scaled-up or scaled-down airfoil section for the bucket.

Abstract: A tuning rib is added preferably in the aft cavity of a cored turbine bucket to alter the bucket's natural frequencies. The tuning rib may be a solid rib or a segmented rib and is particularly suited for altering high order frequency modes such as 2T, 4F and 1-3S. As such, detrimental crossings of natural bucket frequencies and gas turbine stimuli can be avoided to thereby improve the reliability of a gas turbine without impacting other features of the bucket that are important to the performance of the gas turbine.