General Electric Company

Jeffrey John Butkiewicz

Stanley Frank Simpson

Mark Steven Honkomp

Edward Durell Benjamin

Andres Jose Garcia-Crespo

Stephen Paul Wassynger

William Lee Herron

Mark Stewart Schroder

Carlos Alberto Collado

Emilio Fernandez

John Paul Urban

Philip Richard Hirt

A turbine rotor disk includes a row of buckets secured about a radially outer periphery of the rotor disk, each bucket having an airfoil, a platform, a shank and a mounting portion, the mounting portion received in a radial slot formed in the rotor disk such that adjacent buckets in adjacent radial slots are separated by a rotor disk post located between adjacent mounting portions and a shank cavity between adjacent shanks, radially outward of the rotor disk post and radially inward of adjacent platforms. The shank cavity is substantially filled with at least one discrete thermal plug.

Thermal plug for turbine bucket shank cavity and related method

A turbine bucket may generally include an airfoil formed from a metal-based material. The airfoil may include a base and a tip disposed opposite the base. The airfoil may also include a pressure side wall and a suction side wall extending between a leading edge and a trailing edge. Additionally, the turbine bucket may include a tip cap disposed between the pressure side wall and the suction side wall. The tip cap may be formed from a ceramic matrix composite material.

Ceramic-based tip cap for a turbine bucket

An airfoil is provided and includes an airfoil body having a pressure surface extendable between radial ends and a fluid path in an airfoil interior defined therein. The pressure surface is formed to further define a passage by which coolant is deliverable from the fluid path in the airfoil interior, in a perimetric direction from the pressure surface for the purpose of cooling a portion on the surface of the radial end.

Turbine endwall cooling arrangement

A turbomachine includes a turbine section including a turbine inlet. A transition piece includes a transition piece inlet and a transition piece outlet. A ceramic matrix composite (CMC) bridge member links the transition piece outlet and the turbine inlet.

Turbomachine including a ceramic matrix composite (CMC) bridge

A method and apparatus for a rotor assembly for gas turbine engine are provided. A first rotor blade including an airfoil, a platform, a shank, an internal cavity, and a dovetail is provided, wherein the airfoil extends radially outward from the platform, which includes a radially outer surface and a radially inner surface, the shank extends radially inward from the platform, and the dovetail extends from the shank, such that the internal cavity is defined by the airfoil, the platform, the shank, and the dovetail. The first rotor blade is coupled to a rotor shaft such that during engine operation, cooling air is channeled from the cavity through an impingement cooling circuit for impingement cooling the first rotor blade platform radially inner surface, and a second rotor blade is coupled to the rotor shaft such that a platform gap is defined between the first and second rotor blade platforms.

Methods and apparatus for cooling gas turbine engine rotor assemblies

The cooling system for the airfoil includes forward and aft cooling circuits supplied with a cooling medium. Both circuits include serpentine passages. A central rib divides the forward and aft cooling circuits and includes an opening adjacent the airfoil tip providing a jet of the cooling medium from the forward cooling circuit for impingement against the aft portion of the tip cap. The tip cap also includes a thermal barrier coating along an outside surface thereof as well as on the seat for the tip cap, thereby lowering the tip cap metal temperature and thermally induced stress.

Cooling system for an airfoil

A method facilitates assembling a rotor assembly for gas turbine engine. The method comprises providing a first rotor blade that includes an airfoil having a leading edge and a trailing edge including a plurality of trailing edge openings, a platform, a shank, and a dovetail, wherein the platform extends between the airfoil and the dovetail and includes a radially outer surface, a radially inner surface, and a recessed area extending at least partially between the radially outer and inner surfaces. The method also comprises coupling the first rotor blade to a rotor shaft using the dovetail, and coupling a second rotor blade to the rotor shaft such that cooling air is substantially continuously channeled through the platform recessed area during engine operation to facilitate reducing stresses induced to at least a portion of the airfoil trailing edge.

A seal assembly for installation between rotating and stationary components of a machine includes a first plurality of leaf spring segments secured to the stationary component in a circumferential array surrounding the rotating component, the leaf spring segments each having a radial mounting portion and a substantially axial sealing portion, the plurality of leaf spring segments shingled in a circumferential direction.

Turbine rotor-stator leaf seal and related method

A cooling system for turbomachinery includes a compressor bleed air passageway for supplying bleed cooling air to a plurality of circumferentially spaced, generally axially extending passages in communication with a cavity within the inner barrel in which the flanges of the turbine and compressor rotors are secured to one another. The exit ends of the passages have swirl devices for turning the flow from the general axial direction to a tangential direction corresponding to the direction of rotation of the combined rotors. A leakage seal is provided between the rotor and the stationary component to provide a pressure drop across a plenum and cavity to increase the velocity of air flowing into the cavity. Consequently, cooling air is supplied the cavity at a tangential velocity approaching the rotor velocity with reduced windage and lower temperature, thereby improving the performance of the turbomachinery.

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Simpsonville, SC, United States of America

Jeffrey John Butkiewicz