Abstract: A low pressure turbine shroud includes a backplate and abradable material attached to said backplate. The backplate includes an upstream end, a downstream end, and a body extending between the upstream end and the downstream end. The body includes a first portion and a second portion. The body first portion has a first thickness greater than a body second portion second thickness. The abradable material attaches to an inner surface of the backplate and includes at least one segment having a thickness greater than remaining segments of abradable material.

Abstract: A rotator member, for example an airfoil of a rotating blade, is provided with additional stiffness in a radially outer portion of the member by including in the outer portion at least one corrugation extending generally along the width, for example chordwise, of the member.

Abstract: A gas turbine engine airfoil is cast around a core having a plurality of legs to form matching flow channels in the airfoil. The legs have a tie extending therebetween to maintain alignment. And, the tie is relocated along the core span to reduce differential static pressure of the cooling air across the resulting tie hole formed by the core tie.

Abstract: A method for accurately sizing and forming the cooling holes of an air-cooled gas turbine engine component on which a protective diffusion coating will be deposited. The method generally entails drilling a hole in a surface region of a substrate, and then measuring the thickness of any recast surface region surrounding the hole and created as a result of a portion of the surface region having melted and then resolidified. The thickness of the additive layer of the diffusion coating that will deposit on a corresponding recast surface region of the component is then predicted based on an inverse relationship determined to exist with the thickness of the recast surface region formed during drilling of the cooling hole. An appropriately-oversized hole can then be formed in the component so that, after depositing the diffusion coating on the component, the additive layer grows sufficiently within the hole to yield a cooling hole approximately having the required final diameter.

Abstract: An integrated compressor disk and compressor blade (BLISK) having a specified shape is prepared by an electrochemical machining process having a cathode defined by a set of cathode shape parameters. A trial BLISK is prepared using a cathode defined by a set of trial shape parameters, and a set of deviations of the trial shape from the specified shape at a plurality of surface grid points on a surface of the trial article is measured. A set of revised cathode shape parameters is determined using at least one reshaping routine specific to the BLISK. A reshaped article is prepared using the electrochemical machining process and a reshaped cathode defined by the revised cathode shape parameters.

Abstract: A method for improving the thermal fatigue life of a thermal barrier coating (TBC) deposited on an aluminide bond coat through a process by which the surface morphology of the aluminide bond coat is modified to eliminate or at least reduce oxidation and oxidation-induced convolutions at the alumina-bond coat interface, as explained more fully below. The bond coat is deposited to have generally columnar grains and grain boundary ridges at its surface, and is then peened at an intensity sufficient to flatten at least some of the grain boundary ridges, but insufficient to cause recrystallization of the bond coat when later heated, such as during deposition of the thermal barrier coating. In so doing, the original surface texture of the bond coat is altered to be smoother where the grain boundaries meet the bond coat surface, thereby yielding a smoother bond coat surface where the critical alumina-bond coat interface will exist following oxidation of the bond coat.

Abstract: A fuel air mixer for a gas turbine engine combustor having a longitudinal axis therethrough, wherein the fuel air mixer is configured for use in a dome oriented substantially radial to the longitudinal axis. The fuel air mixer includes a fuel injection assembly having a first end, a second end, a fuel passage extending therethrough, and a flange portion having a plurality of spaced openings formed therein which extends from the first end. The fuel air mixer also includes a mixer assembly having a first end, a second end, a cavity formed in a central portion thereof, and a flange portion having a plurality of spaced openings formed therein which extends from the first end. The mixer assembly is configured to receive the fuel injection assembly in the cavity so that the fuel injection assembly and the mixer assembly are able to be connected to an outer casing of the combustor by means of the respective flange portions.

Abstract: A fuel manifold assembly for a gas turbine engine includes a spray shield that directs fuel that may leak from fuel line connections away from engine components. The spray shield attaches around the fuel line connections and includes a first portion and a second portion that is sized to be received within the first portion. The first portion includes at least two retention straps and the second portion includes at least one attachment projection and a pair of openings used to drain the fuel away from the engine. The second portion attaches to the first portion in only one orientation.

Abstract: A segmented turbine cooling component, such as shroud segment for the high pressure and low pressure turbine sections of a gas turbine engine, useful in providing preferential cooling to the side rails or panels of the turbine component through the combination of cooling air fed into the intermediate pressure cavity between the discourager and primary seals and then through recesses in the bottom wall of the lower discourager seal slot that impinges air on the portion of the side panel below the discourager seal. The side panels of the turbine component have an upper primary seal slot and a lower discourager seal slot with a bottom wall having a plurality of alternating lands and recesses along the length thereof and a plurality of cooling air passages having outlets exiting into the lower slot above the lands.

Abstract: An eddy current inspection probe for inspecting a preselected surface at least partially defining an opening in a component. The eddy current inspection probe includes a core moveable between a retracted position and an expanded position in which the probe is sized and shaped for at least partially filling the opening and contacting the preselected surface for inspecting the surface. The probe includes a compliant covering positioned over the exterior surface of the core and an eddy current array positioned over the outer face of the covering. Further, the probe includes an element positioned between an exterior surface of the core and an inner face of the covering having a coefficient of friction selected to permit the inner face of the covering to move tangentially with respect to the exterior surface of the core as the core is moved from the retracted position to the expanded position to ensure intimate contact between probe and the preselected surface of the component being inspected.

Abstract: An inspection apparatus includes a component engagement apparatus, a detection apparatus, and a movement apparatus and is controlled by a cam. A drawer is slidably attached to the component engagement apparatus to receive and align a component including a TV-shaped opening. The detection apparatus is sized to receive an eddy current probe and is attached to the movement apparatus with an adjustable fixture. The movement apparatus identifies a relative position of the eddy current probe in relation to the TV-shaped opening being inspected and guides the movement of the detection apparatus.

Abstract: A compressor casing includes an axially convex inner surface for surrounding a row of rotor blades with radial gaps therebetween. The tip of the blades complement the casing contour for reducing blade tip losses and flow blockage.

Abstract: A fan blade includes an airfoil having a root and an integral platform. The platform includes forward and aft ends and arcuate first and second sides therebetween. The airfoil root is laterally offset closer to the platform first side than the second side. Impact loads with a trailing blade during a blade-out failure are accordingly distributed for reducing peak loading in the trailing blade and damage thereto.

Abstract: A method of forming cooling holes in a gas turbine engine component. The method includes the steps of forming a hole in the component extending between a first surface of the component and a second surface of the component opposite the first surface and supplying pressurized air to the hole from the second surface of the component. The method also includes the step of sensing a parameter representative of air flow through the hole. Further, the method includes enlarging the hole until the sensed parameter represents a preselected air flow rate through the hole.

Abstract: A control system for selectively adjusting effective flow areas of an aircraft engine exhaust nozzle to change operational characteristics of the nozzle. The control system includes a chamber having a hollow interior, a plurality of outlet passages extending from the hollow interior of the chamber to sites within the exhaust nozzle, and an adjustable inlet extending from a pressurized air source to the hollow interior of the chamber for delivering a jet of pressurized air to the chamber. The inlet is adjustable to direct pressurized air to selected one or more outlet passages for the delivery of air via the one or more outlets to corresponding one or more sites within the exhaust nozzle, thereby to change the operational characteristics of the nozzle.

Abstract: A joint for joining a dome plate to a combustor liner includes a first flange formed on the dome plate and a second flange formed on the liner. A mounting ring having a groove formed therein is provided such that the first flange is disposed in the groove and the second flange engages the mounting ring. A retainer is secured to the mounting ring and engages the second flange.

Abstract: A process for forming a diffusion aluminide coating on a substrate, such as a component for a gas turbine engine. The process generally entails placing the substrate in a suitable coating chamber, flowing an inert or reducing gas into and through the coating chamber, and then aluminizing the substrate using an aluminizing technique with a substantially constant aluminum activity, such as a vapor phase deposition process. During the aluminizing process, the amount of unreacted aluminum within the coating chamber is controlled by altering the flow rate of the gas through the coating chamber so that a portion of the unreacted aluminum is swept from the coating chamber by the gas. The amount of unreacted aluminum swept from the coating chamber is regulated by metering the gas flow rate in order to control the aluminizing rate and aluminum content of the resulting aluminide coating.

Abstract: A starting workpiece of a titanium-base alloy having a temperature-composition phase diagram with a beta region and an alpha-beta region separated by a beta transus temperature is processed by first forging the starting workpiece at a first temperature in the beta region to form a billet, thereafter second forging the billet at a second temperature in the alpha-beta region, thereafter third forging the billet at a third temperature in the beta region, thereafter fourth forging the billet at a fourth temperature in the alpha-beta region so that the step of fourth forging accomplishes a reduction in cross-sectional area of from about 5 to about 40 percent, and thereafter ultrasonic testing the billet. The beta-region third forging step combined with a relatively small reduction during the alpha-beta-region fourth forging step produce a microstructure that is conducive to ultrasonic inspection with minimal interference from noise.

Abstract: A gas turbine airfoil has an external surface and an internal passage therethrough. The internal passage is selectively coated by providing a source of a flowable precursor coating material in contact with the internal passage of the airfoil, and providing a coating prevention structure overlying at least a portion of the external surface. The flowable precursor coating material is flowed from the source of the flowable precursor coating material and through the internal passage of the airfoil. The coating prevention structure prevents contact of the flowable precursor coating material with the external surface of the airfoil.

Abstract: A process for forming a diffusion aluminide-hafnide coating on an article, such as a component for a gas turbine engine. The process is a vapor phase process that generally entails placing the article in a coating chamber containing a halide activator and at least one donor material. The donor material collectively consists essentially of at least 0.5 weight percent hafnium and at least 20 weight percent aluminum with the balance being chromium and/or cobalt.