Abstract: An air cooled integrally bladed rotor with bore entry cooling holes for a small gas turbine engine cast using a ceramic core having an axial bore forming piece with a plurality of radial extending spokes that end in an annular ring to form cooling air supply passages for air cooled turbine blades. Bulbous chambers are formed in a circumferential cooling air supply channel formed below each blade, where cooling air holes are drilled from a tip of each blade and into the bulbous chambers. The radial spokes have an elliptical cross sectional shape with a major axis perpendicular to a rotational axis of the central bore of the IBR. A spacing of the inlet openings in the bore are minimized to reduce stress.

Abstract: A spar and shell turbine rotor blade with a spar and a tip cap formed as a single piece, the spar includes a bottom end with dovetail or fir tree slots that engage with slots on a top end of a root section, and a platform includes an opening on a top surface for insertion of the spar in which a shell made from an exotic high temperature resistant material is secured between the tip cap and the platform. The spar is tapered to form thinner walls at the tip end to further reduce the weight and therefore a pulling force due to blade rotation. The spar and tip cap piece is made from a NiAL material to further reduce the weight and the pulling force.

Abstract: A sequential impingement cooling insert for a turbine stator vane that forms a double impingement for the pressure and suction sides of the vane or a triple impingement. The insert is formed from a sheet metal formed in a zigzag shape that forms a series of alternating impingement cooling channels with return air channels, where pressure side and suction side impingement cooling plates are secured over the zigzag shaped main piece. Another embodiment includes the insert formed from one or two blocks of material in which the impingement channels and return air channels are machined into each block.

Abstract: A sequential impingement cooling insert for a turbine stator vane that forms a double impingement for the pressure and suction sides of the vane or a triple impingement. The insert is formed from a sheet metal formed in a zigzag shape that forms a series of alternating impingement cooling channels with return air channels, where pressure side and suction side impingement cooling plates are secured over the zigzag shaped main piece. Another embodiment includes the insert formed from one or two blocks of material in which the impingement channels and return air channels are machined into each block.

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 made from the spar and shell construction in which the shell formed from a plurality of shell segments each being a thin wall shell segment made from a high temperature resistant material that is formed by a wire EDM process, and where the shell segments are each secured to the spar separately using a retainer that is poured into retainer occupying spaces formed in the shell segments and the spar, and then hardened to form a rigid retainer to secure each shell segment to the spar individually. The spar includes a number of radial extending projections each with a row of cavities that form the retainer occupying spaces in order to spread the loads around. The retainer can be a bicast material, a transient liquid phase bonding material, or a sintered metal. An old shell can be easily removed and replaced with a new shell by removing parts of the retainer and re-pouring a new retainer with a new shell in place.

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: An air cooled turbine airfoil such as a stator vane in which the airfoil is hollowed out and an insert is secured within the hollowed out section that produces sequential impingement cooling of the airfoil. The insert is formed from a plurality of plates bonded together outside of or inside of the airfoil to form a single piece insert with the cooling circuit. The plates are bonded together using TLP bonding process with sheets of boron placed between adjacent plates so that no excess material seeps out and into the cooling features formed with the plates. The cooling features of the plates are formed by photo-etching.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade made from the spar and shell construction in which the shell is a thin wall shell made from a high temperature resistant material that is formed by a wire EDM process, and where the shell is secured to the spar using a retainer that is poured into retainer occupying spaces formed in the shell and the spar, and then hardened to form a rigid retainer to secure the shell to the spar. The spar includes a number of radial extending projections each with a row of cavities that form the retainer occupying spaces in order to spread the loads around. The retainer can be a bicast material, a transient liquid phase bonding material, or a sintered metal. An old shell can be easily removed and replaced with a new shell by removing parts of the retainer and re-pouring a new retainer with a new shell in place.

Abstract: A vane assembly for a gas turbine engine is provided, which includes a plurality of vanes, an inner vane support, a casing, and apparatus for maintaining a pressure difference. Each vane has a leading edge, a trailing edge, an outer radial end, an inner radial end, and an internal cavity. The internal cavity includes a forward compartment adjacent the leading edge and an aft compartment adjacent the trailing edge. The casing, which includes an annulus, is positioned radially outside of the vanes. The vanes extend between the inner vane support and the casing. The apparatus for maintaining a pressure difference maintains a difference in the cooling air pressure within the forward and aft compartments of the vane cavity under operating conditions.

Abstract: An air cooled gas engine turbine blade that includes a plurality of longitudinally spaced cavities adjacent the leading edge of the blade is designed to include angularly disposed impingement passages flowing cooling air into each of the cavities in a direction extending from the root to the tip of the blade and including an annular projection upstream of the impingement passage but adjacent thereto for directing air into the respective cavities with total instead of static pressure. The impingement holes are oriented to align with the film cool holes in the blade surface at the leading edge. Ribs formed between cavities are also oriented to be parallel to the impingement holes.