General Electric Company

Brent A Gregory

Ching-Pang Lee

Nesim Abuaf

Ariel C Jacala

Vincent Anthony Barry

A first-stage turbine blade includes an airfoil having a profile according to Table I. The airfoil has a plurality of cooling air passages extending linearly from the root portion to the tip portion of the airfoil. The blade includes a shank having a pair of cavities in communication through the blade dovetail with a plenum in the wheel space for supplying cooling air to the passages in the airfoil. The cooling passages in the airfoil terminate in a recess at the tip portion which has an opening adjacent the trailing edge of the airfoil and along the suction side to enable egress of cooling air into the hot gas stream on the low pressure side of the airfoil. The majority of the cooling passages are turbulated. Certain of those passages are arranged in rows lying adjacent to the pressure and suction sides of the airfoil.

Turbine blade with enhanced cooling and profile optimization

A turbine blade includes an airfoil having a root, tip cap, and laterally opposite pressure and suction sides extending between leading and trailing edges. A cooling circuit is disposed inside the airfoil and extends from the tip cap to the root for circulating a coolant. The airfoil also includes a pair of squealer tips extending radially upwardly from the tip cap along the pressure and suction sides which are spaced apart from the leading to trailing edges to define an upwardly open tip cavity. A thermal conductor is fixedly joined to the squealer tips and extends radially inwardly to the tip cap for conducting heat thereto for removal by the coolant. The conductor preferably surrounds the tip cavity inboard of the squealer tips and is coextensive therewith for being protected thereby.

Conduction blade tip

A turbomachinary airfoil in one form comprises a pressure side and a suction side curved circumferentially outward in the direction that the suction side faces. The invention is effective for reducing both radial and circumferential boundary layer pressure gradients thereby reducing airfoil aerodynamic losses. In another form of the invention the airfoil is a vane of a turbine vane assembly having an inner and outer shroud wherein the vane in addition to being curved is leaned circumferentially outward in the direction that the suction side faces.

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Loveland, OH, United States of America

Brent A Gregory