Abstract: A stator blade assembly for a gas turbine engine having; an outer shroud with an air supply port in communication with compressed air from a high pressure stage of a compressor of the engine; an inner shroud including a blade platform and a plenum enclosure defining a plenum bounded by an inner surface of the blade platform; and a blade spanning between the outer and inner shrouds. The blade has a leading edge portion with a passage communicating between the plenum and the air supply port of the outer shroud and an internal blade cooling channel communicating between the passage and apertures adjacent the trailing edge of the blade. The plenum includes an impingement plate disposed a distance from the inner surface of blade platform to define an impingement cooling chamber within the plenum, and the plate includes impingement cooling apertures to direct cooling jets of air at the inner blade platform.

Abstract: A cooled airfoil has an internal cooling passage in which a plurality of trip strips are arranged to effect variable coolant flow and heat transfer coefficient distribution so as to advantageously minimize the amount of coolant flow required to adequately cool the airfoil structure. In one embodiment, this is accomplished by varying the dimensions of the trip strips along a transversal axis relative to the cooling passage.

Abstract: A cooled gas turbine engine airfoil comprises a flow deflector arrangement adapted to re-direct a cooling fluid away from an unfilled opening left by a support member of a casting core used during the casting of the airfoil. The provision of the flow deflector arrangement advantageously allows for a larger core support, thereby facilitating the manufacture of the airfoil.

Abstract: A cooling system for airfoil vanes in a turbine of a gas turbine engine wherein the airfoil platforms have openings downstream of the insert tube for passing spent platform impingement coolant air into the airfoil cavity downstream of the insert tube to increase the pressure in the aft zone of the airfoil to improve the temperature gradient across the span of the airfoil.