Abstract: An apparatus and a process for experimentally determining a heat transfer coefficient of a surface which includes a duct having an outer passage for water flow and an inner passage for air flow, the two passages separated by a thin wall membrane such that the water flow establishes a datum temperature on the thin wall membrane, and where air flowing through the second passage and over the thin wall membrane surface which can include heat transfer enhancements features will be heated by the features, and where the heat transfer coefficient can be determined from the surface temperature of the thin wall membrane and the change in temperature of the air flow. The duct with the thin wall membrane and heat transfer enhancement features is produced using a plastic or metallic additive manufacture process for low cost and quit turnaround time.

Abstract: A turbine rotor blade with a closed loop cooling circuit for an industrial gas turbine engine in which cooling air for the rotor blade is supplied and carried away to and from the rotor blade through the rotor shaft, and where the rotor blade includes a serpentine flow cooling circuit with an even number of legs or channels in which the cooling air is supplied to and discharge from the blade in the blade root. The closed loop rotor blade cooling circuit can be two four-pass serpentine flow cooling circuits or one six-pass serpentine flow cooling circuit.

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 bi-metallic strip seal used to seal the gap between adjacent shroud segments in a gas turbine engine. The bi-metallic strip seal is formed from one or more layers of bi-metallic materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion. In a cold state the bi metallic strip seal will fit within the slot easily, while in the hot state the strip seal will expand to fit tightly within the slot and block leakage flow. The strip seal can be formed with the bi-metallic layers oriented similarly or oppositely in order to control the seal force and deflection properties. In one embodiment, the strip seal is formed from four bi-metallic layers in which the middle is bonded while the adjacent layers are free from shear.

Abstract: A turbine airfoil with a relatively thick TBC applied over the airfoil surface. The airfoil has a surface contour on the trailing edge region with a forward end having a large amount of taper and a rearward end with less taper such that a substantially constant wall thickness is formed in the rearward end. The TBC is applied over the airfoil surface and tapers off at the trailing edge ends on the pressure side and the suction side walls to produce an ideal surface contour on the airfoil. In another embodiment, the airfoil surface includes a tapered section at the trailing edge region, and the TBC is applied over the taper so that an over-coating is formed. The TBC over-coating is then removed and a smooth and ideal surface contour is produced along the airfoil surface. Small raised bumps each having a height of the desired thickness of the TBC to be applied over the respective bump is used to control the finished thickness of the TBC.

Abstract: The present invention is a process for designing the internal cooling passages with these small scale features using a meshed solid model in a FEA program to perform the CFD analysis. Instead of modeling these small scale features (cooling holes, impingement holes, and turbulators) in the meshed FEA solid model, most of the small scale features are replaced by grid extraneous source terms in which the small scale feature is eliminated from the solid model and replaced with point source terms. The source terms can duplicate the effect of the feature within the analysis without requiring the complex analysis that such features would require in the analysis. Text files for each of the cooling holes, impingement holes and turbulators are inputted and then translated into grid extraneous source terms that include position, energy, and continuity. A conjugate CFD solver performs an analysis and produces new values for the thermal and boundary conditions.