General Electric Company

Hui Kuang

Kenneth Lorenzo Parks

Osman Saim Dinc

David A Williams

George Ernest Reluzco

Raymond Edward Chupp

Robert Randolph Berry

Emilio Fernandez

John Paul Urban

Benjamin Erick Baker

Gayle Hobbs Goetze

Gilbert Joseph Dean

John Augustus Halbohm

Rachel Elizabeth Kyano

Pat Mohr

A bucket tip shroud in a gas turbine includes a seal rail having a cutter tooth at one end. Bucket tip shroud creep rate can be reduced by removing the cutter tooth from the bucket tip shroud seal rail after use or with a pre-groove honeycomb shroud. Preferably, the remaining geometry matches a geometry of the seal rail within a predetermined tolerance.

Gas turbine and method for reducing bucket tip shroud creep rate

The trailing edge of a turbine bucket is cut back from a root portion of the bucket to a location 50-75% of the span of the bucket. The cutback portion is tapered, forming an obtuse angle between it and the remaining original portion of the trailing edge outwardly of the cutback portion. A new conical section is thus created of a slightly larger conical and, hence, transverse configuration. The crack is removed upon removal of the material forming the cutback. With the edges of the recreated conical section surrounded, the cutback portion assumes a scalloped configuration with the exit openings of the cooling holes as seen from opposite sides of the bucket.

Method of forming a trailing edge cutback for a turbine bucket

A brush seal assembly is radially and axially repositionable relative to stationary and rotating components. Shim packs whose thickness can be reduced by peeling adhesively attached foil layers from the shim packs are used to provide both axial and radial repositioning. In another form, a plurality of set screws may be threaded into a mounting member for the brush seal assembly to controllably space the brush seal from the rotating component. In a further form, an eccentric cam is rotated to reposition the brush seal assembly radially inwardly or outwardly with shim packs being used to reposition the brush seal in an axial direction.

Repositionable brush seal for turbomachinery

Growing community of inventors

Greenville, SC, United States of America

Hui Kuang