General Electric Company

Norsk Hydro, A.s.

Liming Xu

Luke John Ammann

Stephen Paul Wassynger

Kevin Leon Bruce

Melbourne James Myers

Richard Ryan Pilson

Thomas Robbins Tipton

David John Humanchuk

Ariel Caesar Prepena Jacala

Jostein Pettersen

Doyle Clyde Lewis

Felipe Roman-Morales

Dimitrios Stathopoulos

Mark Roger Brown

Majid Ahmadi

Nicholas Moretto

Richard Edward Delehanty

Peter Grundlach

Leif Folkedal

Pilson Richard

A retention system for a plurality of turbine buckets located in respective mating slots in a turbine rotor wheel includes a plurality of first circumferentially-oriented retention slots formed in outer peripheral portions of the turbine wheel; a plurality of second circumferentially-oriented retention slots formed in wheel mounting portions of said buckets, the first and second circumferentially-oriented retention slots aligned to form an annular lockwire retention slot; and a lockwire located within the annular lockwire retention slot. A first surface feature on one or both of the turbine rotor wheel and one or more of said plurality of turbine buckets is adapted to engage a second surface feature on the lockwire for preventing rotation of the lockwire beyond predetermined limits.

Turbine bucket lockwire rotation prevention

Embodiments of the present application can provide systems and methods for mode shape identification of turbine buckets. According to one embodiment, a system can be provided. The system can include a turbine bucket having numerous trigger patterns disposed at a distal end of the turbine bucket. A sensor is disposed adjacent to the distal end of the turbine bucket for detecting the trigger patterns. The trigger patterns are patterned to identify at least one mode shape of the turbine bucket.

Systems and methods for mode shape identification

A method by which high temperature properties of a ductile iron alloy, including creep and LCF properties, can be increased for pressure-containing components that are subject to creep and low cycle fatigue. The method comprises modifying the ductile iron alloy to contain 0.4 to 0.8 weight percent molybdenum. A casting of the modified ductile iron alloy is produced and then annealed at a temperature of at least 725&#xb0; C. for not less than five hours to eliminate carbides and/or stabilize pearlite in the casting. The annealed casting of the modified ductile iron alloy exhibits improved creep resistance and low cycle fatigue properties in comparison to an identical casting of a ductile iron alloy that does not contain molybdenum.

Method for improving creep resistance and low cycle fatigue properties of pressure-containing components

The second-stage buckets have airfoil profiles substantially in accordance with Cartesian coordinate values of X, Y and Z set forth in inches in Table I wherein Z is a perpendicular distance from a plane normal to a radius of the turbine centerline and containing the X and Y values with the Z value commencing at zero in the X, Y plane at the radially innermost aerodynamic section of the airfoil and X and Y are coordinate values defining the airfoil profile at each distance Z. The X, Y and Z values may be scaled as a function of the same constant or number to provide a scaled-up or scaled-down airfoil section for the bucket.

Second-stage turbine bucket airfoil

A core for use in casting a turbine bucket including serpentine cooling passages is divided into two pieces including a leading edge core section and a trailing edge core section. Wall thicknesses at the leading edge and the trailing edge of the turbine bucket can be controlled independent of each other by separately positioning the leading edge core section and the trailing edge core section in the casting die. The controlled leading and trailing edge thicknesses can thus be optimized for efficient cooling, resulting in more efficient turbine operation.

Gas turbine bucket wall thickness control

Heat exchanger

Growing community of inventors

Simpsonville, SC, United States of America

Liming Xu