Siemens Energy, Inc.

Chad W Heinrich

Stephen Erick Holland

A converging-diverging nozzle that has particular application for providing a cooling air flow to ring segments in a gas turbine engine. The engine includes a turbine section that receives a hot working gas. The turbine section includes at least one row of vanes, at least one row of blades and a plurality of ring segments forming at least one ring. The ring segments and the vanes are mounted to a vane carrier, where the vane carrier includes a cooling flow channel for each of the ring segments that receives an air flow to cool the ring segments. A plug is provided in each channel and has an internal bore shaped to define the converging-diverging nozzle through which the air flows so as to create a supersonic flow that reduces the temperature of the air and thus provides more cooling for the same amount of air flow.

Cooling air temperature reduction using nozzles

A method for inspecting a turbine blade of a turbine. The method includes operating the turbine and providing a plurality of ablative material strips on the turbine blade. Each strip is fabricated from a common base material and is configured to ablate after exposure to a corresponding predetermined temperature for a corresponding predetermined time period Ablation of a strip indicates a corresponding amount of creep has occurred in the blade. In addition, the method includes visually inspecting the strips at predetermined intervals to determine whether one or more of the strips is ablated.

Growing community of inventors

Oviedo, FL, United States of America

Chad W Heinrich