General Electric Company

David R Abbott

Ronald Wayne Korzun

Anthony Salvatore Arrao

John G Nourse

John J Bourneuf

Jonathan G Salt

Thomas C Barnes

A retainer ring clamps, for example, a turbine cooling plate to a rotatable turbine disc. The retainer ring has a wedge-shaped channel that engages annular flanges on the cooling plate and the disc. The wedge-shaped channel converts radial forces on the ring to axial clamping forces which secure the cooling plate to the disc. Special tooling is not required to assemble the retainer ring to the cooling plate and turbine disc, and preloading of the cooling plate against the disc is not necessary. An angled or slanted gap in the ring eases assembly and disassembly of the retainer ring onto the annular flanges of the cooling plate and turbine disc and ensures that axial and radial movement of the retainer ring is required for disassembly of the ring from the flanges.

Retainer ring

A seal assembly for reducing fluid leakage around a circumferential periphery of an annular nozzle stage in a gas turbine engine includes an abradable annular steel member having an annular attachment ring attached to an outer surface, the ring including a radially extending flange portion. The side of the seal member opposite the attachment ring forms a conventional labyrinth seal with a rotating member extending from a turbine wheel. The nozzle stage includes an annular portion extending inward towards the seal member and having an axially facing area for abutting the attachment ring. The member depending from the nozzle stage in conjunction with the attachment ring forms a radially slidable seal. Tabs are provided attached to one side of the seal member for engaging the depending member from the nozzle stage for holding the seal member in sliding contact against the nozzle stage. The radial sliding relationship between the seal assembly and the nozzle stage permits differential radial movement between the attachment ring and the nozzle stage to thereby maintain the sealing relationship under differential operating temperatures.

Seal assembly

The invention comprises a blade for a gas turbine engine including an airfoil portion having a non-linear stacking axis intersecting a reference radial axis that is effective for generating a compressive component of bending stress due to centrifugal force acting on the blade. The compressive component of bending stress is provided in a life-limiting section of the blade, which, for example, includes trailing and leading edges of the blade. Inasmuch as the stacking axis, which represents the locus of centers of gravity of transverse sections of an airfoil portion of the blade, is non-linear, an increased amount of a compressive, component of bending stress can be generated at a life-limiting section between a root and tip of the blade without substantially increasing bending stress at the root of the blade due to the non-linear stacking.

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Manchester, MA, United States of America

David R Abbott